Star Richmond key defender Alex Rance provides ‘Roar Vision’ with his reflections of season 2016.

Personal best

“From a stats perspective, it was probably my best year that I’ve had, despite the fact of missing a couple of games.  I won the ball back a lot more than I have in previous years.  It’s something that’s a strength of my game.  I managed to get in more positions to win it back.”

Bridging the gap

“I see the team at the moment as being very young.  And we’ve obviously got some pretty good top-end talent.  We just need to bridge that gap between the young players and the senior players that we do have, to really get that success.”

Tiger cubs generate excitement

“It is really exciting to see those young guys come through.  I love playing with Jayden Short and Oleg Markov.  And Dan Rioli had an awesome year as well.  Connor Menadue came of age a bit this year . . . got a few games into him, too.  Probably one of the main things that got me through this year was the youth.”

Stepping back

“I think my focus, individually, will be just to step back a little bit and allow blokes like ‘Grimesy’ (Dylan Grimes), Dave (Astbury) and Nick Vlastuin to start to take control.”

Backline aspirations

“I really want the back six to be known as a really desperate, hard unit that always wants the ball in their hands.  So you’ve got ‘Shorty’ (Jayden Short) and Oleg (Markov) that always want to get a kick, and Dave (Astbury), Grimesy and myself, just always wanting to win the ball back.  We’ve got a really competitive back six.  Dave’s cemented his spot in the side now and Grimesy, Nick Vlastuin and Jake Batchelor, who has been really unlucky with injury this year as well.  So it will be pretty tight for spots.  I think it really helps us to drive our standards that we’ve got blokes that are performing well out in the VFL at weekends and encouraging us to play well at AFL.”