Star Richmond key defender Alex Rance provides ‘Roar Vision’ with an assessment of the team’s, and his own, 2018 season.

Tiger Army

“To have 100,000 members and know that you’ve always got that support, in times in games when we probably needed a lift, it was good to have that extra bit of voice. So a huge thank you . . . I know you guys will come back and be just as strong next year, too.”

Post-preliminary final message

“I think, obviously, the prevailing emotion was disappointment because we wanted to go further and win the whole thing. But you still have to look at the season as a collective. To win as many games as what we did and finish on top of the ladder, there’s a lot to celebrate there. And there’s a lot of youth coming through to celebrate . . . Jack Higgins, Jayden Short had a fantastic year, Dan Rioli again took his game to another level . . . Sometimes we can let the outcome influence our emotions. Of course we’re disappointed. We wanted to win (the premiership), and we want to win next year, as every team does, but it’s about making sure we stay the path and not throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Garthwaite a top prospect

“Ryan Garthwaite making a debut this year was pretty amazing . . . he was so ready to play, really eager, and reminded me a lot of myself . . . pretty raw. He’s just built his game off the back of discipline, care for others, and making sure that he puts people in the right spot. He’ll play a lot of footy for the Richmond Football Club. Just to see him come out and play so well, and then play another game was really great, really exciting. I think the Richmond faithful should be pretty pumped to see him coming through the ranks.”

The backline group

“I’m very fortunate in the backline that I’ve got a lot of guys that are super talented, super reliable and super men in general. I’ve got my two right-hand men, David Astbury and Dylan Grimes. They’re as much of an emotional support, as they are a physical support in a game sense. If my head’s not set, or I’m getting a bit frustrated or whatever, they take over and make sure that the whole unit’s gelling and connecting. Nick Vlastuin, he’s one of the greatest readers of the game that I’ve ever seen. He’s super competitive . . . We’ve got our runners in Bachar (Houli) and ‘Shorty’ (Jayden Short) that are so damaging. And then we’ve got the glue players, and you can probably put ‘Grimesy’ (Dylan Grimes), ‘Broady’ (Nathan Broad) Nick Vlastuin, Connor Menadue Oleg Markov . . . all these guys, and the young guys like Benny Miller, they’re all the glue players that make everyone’s job so much easier.”

Individual season appraisal

“The season for me was pretty disappointing. If you look at it on a stats sheet, and I’ll probably look back and think that I may have been a little bit hard on myself, but there were a few games that I wish I’d played better, I wish I could have back. Prelim (preliminary final v Collingwood) was obviously one of those. But I guess if you want to be great, you’ve got to put yourself in a position to fail. I always try to put myself in a position to be great, and I want to be great, but it’s just a matter of, not so much making it always about me, I’ve got to make sure that I’m getting the most out of others. So that’s my next legacy I’ll want to leave and I know that’ll help me perform also from a playing perspective. But that emotional connection, and getting the most out of other guys, is what I want.”

A fourth consecutive All Australian blazer

“Making All Australian again was different to other years. When I first won it I was shocked, when I won it the next time I was still shocked. Those middle years was when I felt like I was really humming and playing some really good footy. This year was a different one for me because the game’s probably changing a little bit more now to what it was. It’s hard to choose a back six in the All Australian team because what do you look for? Do you look for a negating defender, do you look for an interceptor, or do you look a running defender, or metres gained? How do you quantify their selection? So this year was a harder one for me because I didn’t think I had as good a year. But, obviously, I’m really grateful for that selection.”