By Jake Niall
In setting out the terms of club’s review of football operations, Essendon president Paul Brasher has put on record that senior coach Ben Rutten will coach the club next year.
Brasher, who said the review would focus on improvements to the football program which has yielded an embarrassing 2-9 win-loss record this year, also made clear that the review would focus on improving resources and support in football rather than sacking key figures.
Ben Rutten’s Bombers are languishing near the bottom of the ladder.Credit: AFL Photos
“I’ve said I think Ben will be coaching for a long period of time. I think he will be a very successful coach. I’ve got complete confidence in him,” Brasher told The Age, following his message to members explaining the apparent backflip to a review of football.
Rutten is contracted until the end of 2023. Brasher, in response to a question about Rutten’s security, said the coach would “definitely not” be removed at the end of this season.
“No, no, no, definitely not,” said Brasher. Asked directly if Rutten would coach the Bombers next year, Brasher said: “Yep.”
The president’s strong position on Rutten follows the team’s slump this year to 16th after a rise to finals in 2021, and in a coaching marketplace that has four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson up for grabs.
Brasher said the review – less broad than the one Brasher did at the end of 2020 when key players walked out of Tullamarine – did not need to be external because the club had the right people within to do the job.
“We believe that we’ve got enough people internally with the right sort of objectivity and experience to be able to assess it,” he said.
Chief executive Xavier Campbell and football boss Josh Mahoney would be involved in the review, with football director Sean Wellman overseeing it from a board level.
Brasher also revealed:
- The position of long-serving recruiting boss Adrian Dodoro, who has come under fire from supporters, was not being specifically reviewed.
Asked whether Dodoro’s position was being looked at, Brasher said: “No more than anybody else. We’re not going in with the intention of, you know, trying to change key positions.
“So what they decide can be improved, I’m not sure. But we’re not going in with the objective of getting rid of Adrian or Josh or Ben or Xavier or people like that.”
Brasher said the Dons were examining recruiting to maximise their opportunity in a season where a reasonably early pick was on the cards.
“We think we’ve got one of the best opportunities in terms of recruiting that we have had for a while ... We’ve got salary-cap room, we’ve got people wanting to come. There’s free agency. It’s a really important recruiting period.
“We need to understand how the whole of club can support list management and recruiting better ... is there any more we can do to identify the very specific needs that we’ve got?” - The board did not need to review the board itself or the chief executive’s role in the club’s struggles because they believed they had the right people in place.
“If we were at the stage of looking to sack the footy manager or something like that I could sort of understand that, but we just don’t believe we are in that position ... we really do believe we’ve got the right people in the roles.
“We haven’t got anything like that the environment we had 18 months ago.” - The current review was more incremental than 2020’s and focused on “how can we improve, not just in the second half of the season but going into the next two or three years when we can, we should be seriously thinking about challenging.
“I believe in Ben, I believe in Josh and the footy group. And what we’re talking is what can do we do to support them to improve what we’re seeing.” - The review of 2020 followed a “really, really difficult” situation at the end of the hub in Queensland, with issues not only in football that the Bombers needed to address.
- He had spoken to his friend and Carlton president Luke Sayers about the successful 2021 review of the Blues, which led to the removal of the coach and CEO. Carlton’s review was piloted by external consultants who reported to Sayers.
The Bombers are comparing the review as more akin to St Kilda’s less drastic review of last year. - The Bombers’ struggle to defend opposition ball movement was an example of the kind of area that would be covered by the review.
“That’s a good example. That wasn’t the sort of thing we talked about 18 months ago.” - The review would involve looking at data and analysing performance, compared to the 40 to 50 people Brasher interviewed in 2020.