David Brent wrote:Booney wrote:Scans have confirmed that Richmond defender, Alex Rance has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in last night’s 33-point win over Carlton, and will miss the remainder of the 2019 season.
Rance suffered the injury during a marking contest in the third quarter of the game.
Rance, 29, will consult with a surgeon today and is expected to have surgery to repair the damage in the coming days.
“We’re really disappointed for Alex that he’ll spend an extended period of time out of the game, he’s a wonderful player and fantastic leader of our team,” Richmond General Manager – Football, Neil Balme said.
“Alex, to his credit, has been incredibly positive since the injury occurred, and we’ll continue to rally around him in the coming days and throughout his rehab process.
“While we’ll miss his on-field contribution this season, we know he’ll apply the same dedication and discipline to his rehab and recovery, and we will continue to provide our ongoing support to him.”
I cant see this hurting Richmond's defensive structure much at all, TBH. Massively overrated is Rance. An elite intercept player by CD's rankings, but is horrible when defending one on one, and he is costly on the turnover following his intercepts anyway.
Ryan Garthwaite is Richmond's next best defensive intercept option. Whilst Ryan is a better spoiler than marker, and doesnt win much of his own footy, itll just require small rebounding defenders such as Short, Vlastuin, Houli to create more rebound.
Could trial something and perhaps look at the athletic Noah Balta in a key defensive post. He looked a bit at sea last night as the 3rd tall behind Riewoldt and Lynch, and Carlton looked very good at times on the defensive 50 transition, Richmond lacking that ground ball pace that made them so formidable in 2017.