A damning piece of vision involving Ben Rutten on the bench has indicated how his Essendon players have “checked out” as the coach’s time looks to be coming to an end.
Rutten remained the coach after a pair of board meetings over the last 48 hours, but looks set to be ousted with a year left on his deal, with Essendon powerbrokers keen on luring Alastair Clarkson to the club to be his successor.
The 39-year-old looked to have saved himself following an uptick in Essendon’s form after the mid-season bye, which saw the club record four wins in five appearances before a disappointing loss to the GWS Giants in round 21.
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Essendon’s most recent win came in round 20, where it easily dispatched of cellar-dwellers North Melbourne, but it is an incident from that match that has provided an insight into the breakdown between Rutten and his players.
The incident occurred with the Bombers holding a 49-point lead in the final quarter as defender Nick Hind headed to the interchange bench.
Cameras showed Hind attempting to avoid Rutten, before being called over by the coach, only to completely ignore the advice he was receiving.
The vision left Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes stunned.
“You ask whether the players have checked out … I’m not sure I’ve seen vision of a player treating a coach like this,” he told Nine’s Footy Classified.
“He doesn’t want to sit next to Ben Rutten. Ben Rutten says, ‘No, sit here’. But, look, he’s trying to give him some feedback, some positive reinforcement, and the disengagement of Nick Hind on the bench here … he can’t even look at him.
“The players have clearly checked out, and their on-field actions are displaying that.”
The Age’s Caroline Wilson, who believes Rutten is almost certain to be booted, said the behaviour was “devastating” for the coach.
Cornes also touched on a number of dismal efforts from the loss to Port Adelaide as evidence for why Rutten’s position at Essendon had become untenable.
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“We had to cut this down because of time constraints, but we could’ve spent five minutes on showing poor Essendon efforts,” he said.
“From missed tackles to not defending Port Adelaide’s transition to easy handballs over the top and walk-in goals. I felt sorry for Essendon supporters having to witness this.
“This is why he’s got to go. No coach can survive efforts like this.”
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