Rutten’s impossible position as Dons dance with Clarkson

Essendon’s pursuit of Alastair Clarkson – right under Ben Rutten’s nose – may be unedifying, but one coaching great on Wednesday said at least Rutten almost certainly knew what was going on.

“Whenever I got the sack, I didn’t know until it happened. But it’s a different world these days with people like you and 300 others trying to create a story around it,” the premiership coach said diplomatically, not wanting to buy into the Bombers’ fiasco.

The Bombers’ board meeting on Monday, when agitation led to the departure of Paul Brasher as president (he remains on the board), has made this situation extremely public.

Coaching great Leigh Matthews, who, at 38, was famously all but promised the Collingwood top job for life hours after the 1990 flag but was gone five years later, said the Bombers had to be upfront with Rutten, who is contracted for another season.

“If you believe what you read and now Essendon is in the full chase after Alastair Clarkson, you would have thought that conversation would have been had with Ben Rutten,” Matthews told 3AW.

“If Ben says I still want to go through and coach this week, fine. But if that [Clarkson] conversation is happening and hasn’t been discussed with Ben Rutten, well, that’s really bad form.”

The spectre of Alastair Clarkson hovers over Essendon, leaving Ben Rutten in limbo.Credit:Getty Images

Rutten has said he hasn’t sought assurances about his future.

What is clear is that the Bombers aren’t the first, and won’t be the last, club to pursue a new coach, with the incumbent aware, or least having a hint, of what’s going on. Or, as another former coach described it: “Yeah, it’s like being a dead man walking”.

In 2002, the Blues – headed for their maiden wooden spoon – began debating the future of coach Wayne Brittain, despite Brittain having more than a year left on his contract. As reported by The Age on August 1, 2002: “Carlton has told coach Wayne Brittain that his position is under review in the wake of the Blues’ worst season in history. Brittain went before the board at Optus Oval on Tuesday night and was given no guarantees that he would survive, according to a club source.”

Brittain knew of the rumours, with the Blues linked to Rodney Eade and Denis Pagan. In a tumultuous season, president John Elliott later sacked Brittain, and replaced him with dual North Melbourne premiership coach Pagan, in the hope of saving his own presidency. The salary-cap rorting uncovered by the AFL ended Elliott’s tenure.

In that same year, caretaker Swans coach Paul Roos – having replaced Eade – knew there was strong support from within the club to sign Terry Wallace, who had surprised the football world by quitting the Western Bulldogs. Years later, Wallace said there had been no heads of agreement with the Swans, but an understanding there was an “availability”. Roos, however, won the day through player and supporter power.

In 2011, Mark Harvey was sacked in sensational circumstances and replaced immediately by Lyon, who had walked out on St Kilda earlier on the same day.

The move blindsided Harvey, who was contracted as Fremantle head coach until the end of 2012. Harvey said months later that he would never have spoken to a club whose coach was still under contract.

“If I was asked by another club and that coach had a contract, I certainly wouldn’t be entertaining it,” Harvey said.

Mark Harvey was blindsided when the Dockers sacked him and he was immediately replaced by Ross Lyon.Credit:Vince Caligiuri

Harvey, a three-time Essendon premiership player, is now employed by the Bombers (though is not involved in the coaching deliberations).

There have always been strong suspicions the Blues were in contact with Mick Malthouse or his associates in 2012 well before Brett Ratten was sacked leading into the final round of the season, and despite Ratten having a year remaining on his contract. Malthouse won the job.

Matthews, ever the pragmatist, said the backroom brokering was often based on faith – or the lack thereof.

“There’s a bottom line about the relationship with a coach and a football club,” Matthews said.

“The people who run the football club have to have faith in the coach that he’s the best man for the job to get the best out of our footy team. And that’s a tenuous thing. If the wins come, then it’s easier to have that faith.

“But the people who make the main decisions, if they lose faith in the coach, and think he’s now not the man to take us forward, well then it’s incumbent on them to remove the coach. And pay him out.

“If there’s a financial penalty, you’ve got to wear that. I reckon it’s so much about faith and Essendon would appear to have lost faith in Ben Rutten given there might be a very credible Alastair Clarkson in the wings.”

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