The excellent efforts of star Richmond key defender Alex Rance throughout season 2015 have been recognised by his AFL playing peers.

Rance finished eighth in the AFL Players Association’s Most Valuable Player award, the Leigh Matthews Trophy, which was won by Fremantle’s Nathan Fyfe at a gala function held last night (Tuesday).

In the prestigious player-voted award, normally dominated by midfielders, Rance figured prominently, following a season where he took his game to an even higher level.

The 25-year-old averaged 17.4 disposals and 5.9 marks per match, and was widely acclaimed as the best key defender in the competition.

He is expected to be selected in the All-Australian team for a second successive year.

Rance’s brave on-field deeds also were acknowledged at the 2015 AFLPA awards’ night, when he finished fifth in the Most Courageous Player category, which was won by Sydney’s Luke Parker.

Meanwhile, talented, young Tiger Brandon Ellis has made the AFLPA’s team of the best players aged under 22 for the third year in-a-row.

Ellis, who averaged 25.8 disposals per game throughout the 2015 season, was named on the interchange bench in the 22Under22 team.

He has been selected in the side each year since its inception in 2013, with Port Adelaide’s Chad Wingard the only other player to have managed that feat.