That is so cool, the club didn’t even have to photoshop the Essendon strip onto Rancey for the announcement. But so we know he is still a clean and decent short back and sides sort of guy, they needed to photoshop out what appears to be a monster mullet.
Bigger version of Langford
He’s nothing like Langford, he smiles…
He was almost as good as Zerk-Thatcher in that game.
Trade radio when there is no actual news to report:
Hope he can turn over a new leaf but his recent “off field” behaviour over the past few years, gives me little hope that he will be trustworthy.
In the past few years Rance has retired from AFL football and separated from his wife. Outside of Scuttlebutt, what’s he done wrong?
Do you really want to dive into it
You mean all the fake stories being spread about on forums like BigFooty that were all forced to be deleted due to legal action or face defamation action? Yeah the internet, best place to get all the facts.
Sure I know, you have “inside info”, like everyone else does.
good to see you have an open mind about it all though…
there aren’t too many players with the CV that he has that are available to help teach and develop our young defenders. Not only in terms of defending but on how to keep your body in tip top shape
Also advantage is he will be able to get involved in some of the drills as has played footy as recently as this year. Imagine the confidence Baldwin/Jones/Reid will get when they are beating Rance and Hurley in contests.
If he’s a pants man it’s a good way to ■■■■ up a club.
Maybe we roll with it it and rename it Melrose place.
Alex Rance discusses the motives behind his move to Essendon as a development coach.
By Julian Trantino - Dons Digital - 12 hrs ago
Alex Rance is back in the AFL system in a development role with the Bombers. (Photo: AFL Photos)
After a two-year hiatus from the AFL, new Essendon part-time development coach Alex Rance says the time is right to jump back into the game he still loves.
The former Richmond star premiership defender and five-time All-Australian, who retired two years ago after a serious knee injury, will reunite with senior coach Ben Rutten and assistant Blake Caracella, having worked with the pair at the Tigers.
His role will focus on developing the technical and leadership skills of the Bombers’ key-position and first- to fourth-year (Jack Jones Academy) players.
“It’s very exciting. After my retirement in 2019, the last two years have showed me that I still love the game, but I just needed to work out where it fits in with my life and priorities,” Rance said.
“I feel I’ve got a really good understanding of what I want my life to look life, in terms of putting my priorities first.
“[It’s exciting] to jump back in and do support work in something that was a strength of my game – that contest craft and working with key-position players. I’ve always had a passion for helping young people achieve young goals in that leadership and mentor role.
“It works really well for me to come in and dip my toes in the water just for the pre-season and have that exposure to high-level athletes and young athletes who want to improve in that key-position area.
“At this stage it’ll be a day or day-and-a-half a week in pre-season. I’ll work with anyone who wants to work on their key-position craft. I’ve got a curriculum of drills and technical focuses to try to improve on, but one of the things I also talked about with Ben Rutten was role modelling some of the leadership behaviours which made me successful as a player.”
The opportunity to work alongside Rutten was one of the key factors in Rance’s decision to take on role at Essendon.
Rutten served as Rance’s line coach in the Tigers’ 2017 premiership season, while Caracella was also part of Damien Hardwick’s coaching panel.
An emotional Alex Rance after Richmond’s 2017 Grand Final triumph. (Photo: AFL Photos)
Rance said he held the pair in the highest regard, maintaining a friendship with Rutten since the Richmond days.
“The opportunity came up through conversations with Ben Rutten. Ben has been a really close friend of mine,” he said.
“On a personal level, we’re similar people. We love camping and being out of the city, and I think that has drawn us closer to each other over the years. We have a personal and professional connection, which is nice.
“From a professional perspective, ‘Truck’ [Rutten] and ‘Cara’ [Caracella] have been the greatest principle-based coaches I’ve experienced. Admittedly I haven’t had a lot of coaches over my time, as once we had success, it was a pretty stable coaching panel at Richmond.
“They [Rutten and Caracella] allow players to play their strengths by coaching them by principles, not by rules. I think you could start to see the identity of Essendon across the year, and how much more evident it became towards the back of the year as the players knew where they fitted within the system and the principles Truck wanted them to play by.
“I really respect the way Truck coaches and teaches, and that’s the same with Cara.”
Rutten and Caracella won’t be the only familiar faces for Rance, after the 32-year-old suited up for the Bombers’ VFL side in a one-off appearance on the Gold Coast in July.
With only 11 Essendon players available in Queensland for the VFL clash with Southport, Rance was one of 11 ring-ins who donned the sash in a nail-biting loss to the Sharks.
While his impressive performance sparked external commentary about a potential return to an AFL list, Rance said the most satisfying aspect of the day was mentoring his peers.
“It was a really nice full stop on my playing career. It was interesting comparing my second half to my first half. In the first half I felt like I was playing well, but I ran out of gas in the second half. It just shows how finely tuned you have to be as an athlete to perform at a high level for long enough,” he said.
“Now I know that I’m prepared to support, but not prepared to give up my whole life in the pursuit of being an elite athlete again. It was exciting [to be back playing], but the thing I enjoyed most was seeing the growth of someone like [Brandon] Zerk-Thatcher, and how he responded to feedback, along with some of the other young players in midfield.
“That was what I really got a kick out of - helping blokes position themselves so that they can execute, and give them confidence to play to their strengths.
“It’s such an exciting list at Essendon. I spoke to them in the change rooms after the game, and told them the talent was definitely there. It’s just a matter of doing it regularly enough – that’s the difference between good sides and the rest. It’s exciting to see how much more growth this team has, because they showed in 2021 the amazing amount of talent and potential they have.”
Alex Rance dons the sash in a match for the VFL Bombers in July. (Photo: AFL Photos)
Rance will balance his commitments at the Bombers with those at The Academy - an AFL passion-based education program for year 11 and 12 students, which he co-founded in 2016.
He joins forwards coach Dale Tapping and VFL coach Brent Stanton as new additions to Essendon’s coaching panel.
Well he talks the talk so lets see if he walks the walk. Hope its not a case of mates looking after mates.
Absolutely the player from Richmond i hated on the most because he was critical every bloody time in their wins over us. Never gave us an inch. Slaughtered his Ess opponents dropped off and always helped his team mates.
Felt the same way about James Kellys Geelong days.
But loved his work for Ess and became one of my favourites. Hoping Rance will be same albeit in coaching capacity…
Hoping he take s Ridley to the next level.
If by close, you mean not close at all, then I fully agree
So, its a trial period to see if he can coach. If he is as good at coaching as he was playing… every club will be after him.
The premiership Tiger looks like he should still be in the league. Picture: Getty Images
Not exactly high level competition for him there
He’s probably lapped those blokes
