Essendon boss Paul Brasher reveals findings of football department review and ‘roadmap’ back to finals

An extensive investigation into what went wrong at Essendon this year has delivered a big win for new coach Ben Rutten as the club reveals what must change next year.

Ben Rutten and John Worsfold have contrasting coaching styles. Picture: Michael Klein

Essendon has conceded there were fundamental coaching differences between John Worsfold and Ben Rutten this year.

A review into the club’s football operations led by president Paul Brasher found there were “conflicting philosophies” between the pair in 2020.

Essendon slumped to 13th in Worsfold’s final season – winning just one of their last 10 games – with Rutten to take charge in his own right next year.

Revealing details of the club’s “roadmap” to climb the ladder, Brasher admitted Worsfold’s player “empowerment/own your own career” philosophy had contrasted starkly with Rutten’s “uncompromising demands on standards and accountabilities”.

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And in a win for Rutten, the review determined that the more “ruthless” mantra was better suited to Essendon’s current playing group.

“It is clear the empowerment approach (pushed by Worsfold) didn’t work well with this group in this environment,” Brasher said in his report.

“Going forward, everybody, not just the players, but everybody in the entire club, will be in no doubt about the standards required and will be held accountable to meeting those standards.

“Our players will be pushed hard in training, they want to have high expectations placed upon them and they want to receive strong, honest and constructive feedback on performance.”

The Bombers have vowed to dramatically overhaul the club’s football operations as a result of Brasher’s “brutally honest” probe, including the appointment of a new general manager of footy to replace the axed Dan Richardson.

The review found new coach Ben Rutten’s “ruthless” approach was better suited to the playing group. Picture: Michael Klein

Brasher conducted more than 40 interviews with players, coaches and staff in conjunction with club directors Simon Madden, Sean Wellman and Kevin Sheedy.

He said his review had identified four “main themes” for improvement: “brand, identity and a winning culture”, “standards and accountability”, “honesty and connection”, and “player leadership and development”.

“We need to be clearer on what the Essendon brand stands for,” he said.

“Critically, there will be no ambiguity about the fact that our overriding objective is winning – winning games, winning finals, and particularly winning premierships.

“I know that sounds like we are stating the obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be taped to our wrists so that none of us ever lose sight of that. We must be clear on how we play and what we stand for.

“Our identity is important to our coaches and players and we know our members want to see a clear and identifiable culture, game style and approach to how we play.

“When you hear from Ben in coming weeks you will discover this is something he is passionate about.”

The Bombers will also place more emphasis on “recruiting, selecting and developing” on-field leaders and have engaged a high-performance psychologist.

“Development more broadly, in terms of mental resilience and player skills, will continue to have increased focus,” Brasher said.

“Additionally, our head of high performance, Sean Murphy, will be charged with taking the group physically to the next level.

“The detailed outputs from our review will be our constant roadmap as we work towards and through 2021.

“To the extent that they relate to coaching, Ben will benefit greatly from having the ability to call upon mentoring from Kevin Sheedy.

“In addition, the extent to which we make progress against the various recommendations will be regularly monitored by our football director, Sean Wellman, and will be one of the factors to which the board will have regard in assessing performance next year.”

Essendon president Paul Brasher says the Bombers need to be clearer about what they stand for.

Brasher told the Herald Sun on Tuesday: “I didn’t have to do a review to know that the members were saying we are not really clear on what the Essendon football team stands for.

“We’d like to have a more ruthless mindset where you know that every week you are going to see the team operating at a high standard – and it’s going to be predictable.

“There is no doubt Ben is going to be very different. And he will be very clear. There will be no confusion with messages from other coaches or other people.

“I’m absolutely sure we will be a lot better next year, what that translates into let’s see,”

The Bombers boss also took aim at critics of list boss Adrian Dodoro after his Greater Western Sydney counterpart Jason McCartney took a swipe at the club’s trade period tactics in signing young Giant Jye Caldwell.

“I don’t think you comment on other clubs – I thought it was very unprofessional to do it,” Brasher said.

“It was clearly sour grapes and actually made him look silly because the trade he (McCartney) said was insulting and a lack of respect is exactly the trade we ended up doing.

“If he’d hoped to get a little bit more on top of it, well that’s his problem not ours.

“If you look at (Dodoro’s) record over the last few years, it has been terrific.”

MORE BOMBERS NEWS:

Robbo Q&A: Ben Rutten breaks silence and lays out his plans for Essendon

AFL trade news: How Essendon sealed Jye Caldwell deal