By Oliver Caffrey, Marnie Vinall and Steve Larkin
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has slammed Essendon for disrespecting Ben Rutten as other AFL coaches reached out to support the besieged Bombers mentor.
Goodwin and Richmond coach Damien Hardwick are among coaches to contact Rutten as he clings to his job in charge of Essendon.
Rutten’s position is in jeopardy after the club this week attempted a last-ditch bid to lure four-time Hawthorn premiership mastermind Alastair Clarkson.
The 39-year-old Rutten has continued coming to Essendon’s Tullamarine headquarters to take training despite the strong chance he will be removed, leading the session on Thursday morning.
Goodwin, a playing teammate of Rutten’s at Adelaide, is also a former assistant coach at Essendon.
“I am a mate of Ben, I have reached out to Ben, it’s a really tough situation,” Goodwin said on Thursday.
Essendon coach Ben Rutten at the club’s training session on Thursday morning.Credit: Getty Images
“To be honest, I think we all sit here as coaches and we look at our situation and the one thing you want in our industry is respect. And I don’t think Ben has been afforded that. I think it has been pretty poor how he has been treated.
“Hopefully, he comes out the other side but he has showed enormous dignity in the way he has gone about his business.
“He has given four years of incredible service to that footy club and our industry.
“He is a great person, a great coach. And I just hope he comes out the other side and make sure that he is treated the right way.”
Rutten worked at Richmond under Hardwick for four years and was a member of the coaching panel during the Tigers’ drought-breaking 2017 premiership.
“Ben Rutten’s a terrific coach, we’ve had him in these four walls, we know what he’s capable of and how well he can do the job,” Hardwick told reporters on Thursday.
“What I do empathise with is the human element. It’s a tough situation but that’s the caper we’re in.
“It’s unfortunate in nature but what we care about is the person and we hope Ben himself is doing OK.”
Hardwick was uncomfortable with clubs that had incumbent coaches speaking to prospective replacements, and with teams targeting contracted players in-season.
Ben Rutten is tackled by Nick Hind at Essendon training on Thursday.Credit: Getty Images
He raised the example of Melbourne recently speaking with contracted Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy.
“Our players are probably speaking to other clubs and we’re speaking to other players, it’s just part and parcel of the industry,” Hardwick said.
“It doesn’t make it particularly right, but we do know it is part of the equation.
“It probably doesn’t sit right with me that we’re able to speak to other players and people are able to speak to our players.
“Unfortunately, until the AFL probably mandates that it’s a no-no then it will continue to happen.”
North Melbourne president Sonja Hood said her club was confident with where the Kangaroos were at in their talks with Clarkson, after a board meeting on Wednesday night.
“We talked about a whole lot of stuff, including the coaching position for next year and we’re pretty comfortable with where things are at,” Hood told Seven after the board meeting.
“We are pretty confident we will know something by the end of the weekend, and we are really happy with the way things are going.
“We think we have presented well to him [Clarkson], he has presented well to us. We understand where each other is at and we’ll see how that plays out.
“We’ve had fantastic communication with both him and [manager] James [Henderson] all the way throughout. There was no ultimatum, we just wanted some clarity on where things were at. So, we knew if we needed to move on to plan B, we could move onto plan B.”
Clarkson is “moving quickly to a decision” on his future as his management confirmed on Wednesday night that the 54-year-old would not drag out the process. Essendon president David Barham informed club staff he had spoken to senior coach Ben Rutten and the club’s leadership group on Wednesday.
Clarkson was in Adelaide on Wednesday for personal reasons as the Kangaroos considered their next step if he rejects their offer to join the club on a deal of at least five years.
Clarkson gave Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley a heads-up that he would be in town, to circumvent speculation about coaching moves. Port Adelaide chairman David Koch expressed displeasure with the Power’s football department last week before saying Hinkley would remain in charge next season.
“I can only answer it the same way I’ve answered always. I’m committed to Port Adelaide and expect to see out my contract at Port Adelaide as Port Adelaide are to me,” Hinkley told SEN.
“Sometimes you try to shortcut that question and people get critical of you trying to shortcut that question, but you’ve answered it so many times, for me, it’s been pretty clear from the club and myself – what more can we say?”
“I did [get a text] actually – it was good of Clarko because he knows what’s going on in the footy landscape very well, and he’s an incredibly successful coach, but also incredibly respectful, and I think he probably understood what might happen when he landed in Adelaide,” the Power coach said.
“He just reached out to let me know that that was going to happen – and it certainly happened.”
With AAP
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