Di Rance is a basketballer, and a proud one at that. While her husband, Murray stole the spotlight as an AFL player and Captain of the West Coast Eagles in the 1980s; her daughter, Ali kept her busy as a promising junior kayaker at the Australian Institute of Sport; and her son, Alex’s sporting endeavours as a premiership star with Richmond and All-Australian captain, often demand her attention, it’s on the basketball court that Di Rance feels most at home when it comes to sport.

“I really love basketball. I feel good when I play it,” she says.

The now grandmother has been shooting hoops most of her life and would do just about anything to play the game, even when her time demanded looking after two active toddlers.

Richmond partner with This Girl Can – Victoria campaign

“I remember clearly, at one time, trying to get to basketball at East Vic Park with you and Ali”, Di recalled with her son, Alex “and we get in the car, everything was organised, and you decide to wet yourself! My thought was, ‘oh my goodness, I’m going to be late for basketball.’ I remember ripping of your pants and holding them up to the air blower, while I’m driving, so that I could get to basketball! So that started, ok, this is what it means to play basketball with kids.”

Listening to mother and son talk, you can see where the Richmond vice captain gets his laconic style and quick wit. “You were pretty much the MacGyver of parenting”, laughs Alex, who credits his mum with giving him a passion for team sports over individual pursuits.

“I very much value the connection, the mateship,” he says. “It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to win every game. I mean, it’s great, you know, to have those memories we can share. But the thing I love most about the Grand Final is seeing the enjoyment on everyone else’s faces and seeing the happiness it brought them. I think I definitely picked that up from you,” he added.

A participant of Richmond Football Club’s This Girl Can - Victoria program - part of VicHealth’s state wide campaign to empower Victorian women to enjoy being active without worrying about judgement, gender, stereotypes or skill level - Di admits there’s always going to be obstacles in life. Now in her 50s, with menopause and injury a constant battle, she shares her perspective on tackling life’s everyday curveballs. 

“It stabilisers if you can have that balance (including sport) in your life. I still continued to play basketball, even though at times it was a struggle to get to where I had to get. It balanced everything out.” 

Di has been playing basketball at Keilor Stadium, north-west of Melbourne for a number of decades and many of her current team-mates have ridden a lot of the journey with her. “The joke with all the girls is we don’t play for the basketball, we play for the coffee afterwards and even though sometimes, to quote my other friend, ‘I’m just a pair of shoes on the court’, it’s a network. It’s a community. We sweat for an hour, but we chat for two hours. It’s a beautiful thing.” 

“We all come from different backgrounds and we’re all there for each other, says Jane Rogers. Now we’re finding as we get older, some of us go through some hard times; parents passing or sick or whatever, but we all hang out there for each other and it’s really, really good.”

Fellow team-mate, 70-year old former Australian representative, Sandra Tomlinson, has been playing basketball since she was 12 years old. “I love the game and the only time I’ve stopped is for four pregnancies for my four daughters,” says Tomlinson. “I run my own business and I also have five grand children, so I want to live a lot longer and I love the fact that I can play with my friends.”

Alex, who runs his own sports’ school, The Academy, asks his mum for advice for young aspiring female athletes. “Look at sport to not be gender based and be the best you can be,” says Di.

“I think for young women, it’s really hard to step away from what is the norm – always netball for girls and football for boys – so there’s going to be a lot of challenges for them playing what is perceived to be a boy’s sport. But I would say to the girls, you know, make it your own. It’s your sport. Love it. Make it your passion and definitely train as hard as you’re going to play.”

While many are inspired by the heroics of her son, spend five minutes with Di Rance on the topic of basketball and you can‘t help but walk away smiling and being inspired.

This Girl Can, “continue playing basketball, even if I’m just a pair of shoes on the court, through babies, through menopause, get on the court”, she says with fierce determination. It’s definitely something we’ve seen before.

VicHealth’s This Girl Can - Victoria campaign celebrates women who are all kinds of active. Women who are giving it their all, or giving it a go, but not giving a damn!