DID ALEX Rance's season-ending knee injury signal the end of Richmond's chances of securing a unique piece of history?

No side has ever won a flag and then reassembled the team that achieved the feat in another game.

Richmond technically had a chance to do it, with its premiership 22 from 2017 still on the list.

However, the recruitment of star forward Tom Lynch from Gold Coast and the emergence of Jayden Short as a gun running backman meant it was always going to be unlikely.

Rance being done for the year has made the odds of it happening even slimmer.

It won't happen for 2018 premiers West Coast. Scott Lycett has moved to Port Adelaide and Mark LeCras retired.

Forget about the 2016 Western Bulldogs pulling it off as well. Six players have left: Joel Hamling (Fremantle), Jake Stringer (Essendon), Luke Dahlhaus (Geelong), Jordan Roughead (Collingwood), Matthew Boyd (retired) and Clay Smith (retired).

Between free agency and the increasing willingness of clubs to trade, not to mention players generally being more willing to move, it's hard to see any side ever fielding the team that won it a flag on another occasion.