ALEX Rance will be wearing Gold Coast colours in 2024 – but not as a player.
The former Richmond premiership full-back and five-time All-Australian will join Damien Hardwick's football department as a leadership consultant after recently moving to Queensland.
He will also work with new club partner LOOP Logics in an off-field role.
Rance, who retired at the end of 2019 after rupturing his ACL in round one that season, said developing club culture was something he was passionate about, harking back to his Tigers days.
"I've always been passionate about why cultures are successful and why they aren't," Rance told AFL.com.au.
"I took a lot of notes when I was playing as to the successful period we had versus the not successful period we had.
"As soon as Dimma came up here I said: 'Is there scope for me to do some work and develop the culture and leadership space up here', and he was really excited with that."
Rance moved north in June for family reasons, wanting to spend more time with his nieces and nephews who live on the Gold Coast, but also to get "out of the Melbourne bubble".
He will also help out with some key-position coaching and said the cultural change between cities would be interesting.
"It is a big shift and that's something I'm still piecing together - how do we generate hype? How do we generate a sense of urgency?" he said.
"You have that in Melbourne from an external perspective because either the media are writing about you every day, or the public are coming and giving you their thoughts at the pub or the café. Whereas here, not so much.
"We have to generate that internally and create a healthy way of keeping standards high and making sure we're not just sweeping things under the rug."
Rance will work at the Suns two days a week and said he was undecided about whether he'd put the boots on again at any level.
"I don't know yet, we're just playing it by ear," he said.
"At this stage I enjoy my life balance that I have, but I think Dimma is leaving a rookie spot open for the mid-season draft just in case," he laughed.
