Retired Richmond star Alex Rance has refused to rule out his AFL return, but admits he fears it could impact his life balance.
Rance spectacularly hung up the boots in December, having been towards the end of his comeback trail from an ACL injury sustained in round one of the 2019 season.
The five-time All-Australian was tipped to face Carlton in round one for the Tigers, but stunned the AFL world when he announced his retirement to pursue other life interests.
Both Rance and the Tigers have maintained his return to the game is not completely off the cards.
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In an interview with RRR Radio, Rance admits he'd "love" it if he were to return, but is more than happy with his life in retirement.
“I love the game and I love what I have contributed and I am not going to completely rule out the fact that I could come back,” the former Tiger told RRR radio on Monday.
“But at this stage I’m really happy with the life balance that I have and I don’t regret any of my time spent at Richmond because it made me who I am.
“I’m proud of the effort I put in there to achieve what we did. It’s a constant thing. It’s almost like - and this is bad analogy but I am going to use it anyway - it’s like being an alcoholic and constantly working in Dan Murphy’s.
“I know that if I go back to playing for Richmond I am going to love it so much that it’s going to consume my life and my balance is going to go out again. I’m happy where I’m at.”
The 30-year-old's retirement decision was driven by his desire to seek spiritual growth, and spend more time with family and friends.
Rance in the past has said he "treated football like a band-aid" and maintained he's felt "uneasy" since first pondering retirement in 2015.
But the decision to call time after 200 games has given him the chance to learn things that his AFL career otherwise didn't allow.
“You never really know completely who you are. Life’s a journey and you experience new things, new people come into your life, old people go out of your life and different things happen to you,” he said.
“Yeah, I feel like I do have a lot more clarity. I’ve got a lot more time because football, to be great at it, it’s very selfish and you need to be very consumed in it. It needs to take over your life because it’s so competitive and every kid wants to do it.
“Now that I have the time to reflect and spend on other areas of my life, like my family, my faith and fitness and other things like that, it’s given me a bigger opportunity to balance that all out.”
