ROSS Lyon has revealed his Dockers went very close to wrenching Tiger great Alex Rance out of Richmond at the end of 2014.

In Episode 6 of The Coach, Lyon said he tried to convince Rance to leave after the second of three consecutive elimination final losses by the Tigers.

"I enjoyed Alex's company, he was very interesting, and we would have spent four or five hours in a room at Crown, just together, and it was remarkably easy," Lyon said.

"But even then, it shocked me when he said he could potentially retire in two years. They'd just been beaten in a final by Port Adelaide over there and how they were playing then compared with how they are playing now, and defending, is very different.

"I remember having footage and saying we would do it differently, a bit more team defence, like they are doing now.

"I thought we had a real opportunity, it went on for a fair while. And I thought we were a really good show.

"But was he the right thing for us? Because we had Alex Pearce coming through as well. But he has very impressive.

"It stayed with me that he could just go at any time, and he did."