Coaching Staff Former Coach Ben "Truck" Rutten - Sacked for real this time - 21/8

[lenny2013]

I joked last night watching the game that Nathan Buckley will be the coach of EFC next year. Wonder if that will still be a joke in 8 weeks.

Bucks just said on fox that he wouldn't touch the job.
He said we need to change more than just the coach.

 

[yodellinhank]

How can he have had 4 years, if the last guy was sacked 2 years ago?

Surely you wait for the external review and understand the full reason for the underperformance. What if it turns out that the problem wasn't the coach? (too late now I guess) Our board (and many supporters) are one trick ponies. Wait 2-3 years, if no finals win, sack the coach, rinse and repeat.

Nature of the business Have a look at AFL coaches in general. Only Dew has 3+ seasons and hasn't won a final.

 

[BrunoV]

Barham has completely cooked it from my point of view. Not just with his laughable attempt at getting Clarko or his poor treatment of a decent human. He has given the players an out. Had it started next year the way it finished this year they would've been completely exposed next year as frauds, Truck would've been a no brainer to go (possibly mid year depending on the start) and nobody would've been surprised or thought he'd not been given a fair run at it. The players would have no one to blame but themselves or Truck.

Also his idea of an external review at this stage consists of finding out why Geelong have played in 8 prelims. According to him no positions within the football department will be under review.

The players have served up shit for most of 6 seasons now.

Other than it being part of some acting out against the stupidity of how this has played out why do you think anything will change?

I've thought about this and I've thought that it could be that this is what it takes to get the players to understand.

I'm far too cynical about the player to believe they will build anything sustainable with Rutten, even from here.


Aside from that, **** them, they don't get to do that.. The players need to be treated like the children they are.

 

[P Money]

Seems like some people on this forum are as delusional as the old boys club on the board.

We’ve been a basket case on field for 15 years, never won more than 12 games in a season and embarrassed any time we’ve snuck into the finals. Never had a sustainable brand of footy, never been a good defensive team.

How many coaches have we cycled through in that time? 5 by my count (not counting multiple stints by Hird and Bomber). How many players have we cycled through? Innumerable.

Yet the answer is ‘sack the coach’ or ‘blame the players’. Until there’s a realisation that problems at this footy club run much deeper than coaches and players, nothing is going to change. Sack as many coaches as you like, trade out and redraft players, the shitshow will continue for the next 15 years.

Like Jobe said, the club needs to stop looking outwards and start looking inwards. I was really hoping for two things to happen once Barham made his move on the board:

#1 - if we were to sack Rutten, then land Clarko. This is not because I thought he would be the messiah that would finally take us to the promised land, but because if and when we remained a mediocre football team under his tenure, the cry of ‘it’s the coach’s fault’ would ring hollow and the club would have to address the glaring problems within its 4 walls.

#2 - a deep, wide and far-ranging external review where every aspect of the football club and every person in every position would scrutinised by people with no connection to the club, no loyalties to incumbents and no Essendon bias.

Sadly neither of these two things have happened. So I guess we bring a new coach in and Sisyphus pushes the rock back up the hill until it rolls back down the other side in two years and we sack the coach again.


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[yodellinhank]

Seems like some people on this forum are as delusional as the old boys club on the board.

We’ve been a basket case on field for 15 years, never won more than 12 games in a season and embarrassed any time we’ve snuck into the finals. Never had a sustainable brand of footy, never been a good defensive team.

How many coaches have we cycled through in that time? 5 by my count (not counting multiple stints by Hird and Bomber). How many players have we cycled through? Innumerable.

Yet the answer is ‘sack the coach’ or ‘blame the players’. Until there’s a realisation that problems at this footy club run much deeper than coaches and players, nothing is going to change. Sack as many coaches as you like, trade out and redraft players, the shitshow will continue for the next 15 years.

Like Jobe said, the club needs to stop looking outwards and start looking inwards. I was really hoping for two things to happen once Barham made his move on the board:

#1 - if we were to sack Rutten, then land Clarko. This is not because I thought he would be the messiah that would finally take us to the promised land, but because if and when we remained a mediocre football team under his tenure, the cry of ‘it’s the coach’s fault’ would ring hollow and the club would have to address the glaring problems within its 4 walls.

#2 - a deep, wide and far-ranging external review where every aspect of the football club and every person in every position would scrutinised by people with no connection to the club, no loyalties to incumbents and no Essendon bias.

Sadly neither of these two things have happened. So I guess we bring a new coach in and Sisyphus pushes the rock back up the hill until it rolls back down the other side in two years and we sack the coach again.


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How many presidents? How many board members?

 

[Old Campaigner]

How can he ******* sit there and have the confidence to say there will be no other changes. * me dead.

They sacked the coach, that means that everything is fixed now.

 

[Bjchan13]

The players have served up s**t for most of 6 seasons now.

Other than it being part of some acting out against the stupidity of how this has played out why do you think anything will change?

I've thought about this and I've thought that it could be that this is what it takes to get the players to understand.

I'm far too cynical about the player to believe they will build anything sustainable with Rutten, even from here.


Aside from that, * them, they don't get to do that.. The players need to be treated like the children they are.

My only issue is that the mess of our board/management overshadows the mess that is the players on field performance. I wanted the blame layed at squarely at the players feet when Truck was inevitably sacked, with no possible outs or excuses. Poor coaching and/or pissweak lazy footballers would've been the only explanation. Now our incompetent board has given another explanation that sections of the media and fanbase will go with. But i think most will get over this pretty quickly. And i think most would agree with you, the players are children and they need some home truths delivered. Been babied since the saga.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Sure, Rutten can articulate all that is wrong with the club. Trust the process, stay the course, don't sack me I like my job. He just struggled to articulate what the hell went wrong after each unacceptable performance that wasn't what we wanted to stand for.

Time will tell but I suspect he inherited a list that was largely not suited to the modern game - both physically and mentally.

Maybe we get a new coach and it all magically clicks into place but I doubt it.

 

[ghostdog]

Of course I do. The only way you get your say is by telling the club to shove it by not renewing your membership.

The only issue I see with this is that when the membership numbers drop, TPTB will simply blame that on Rutten, such is their hubris.

 

[BrunoV]

How can he have had 4 years, if the last guy was sacked 2 years ago?

Surely you wait for the external review and understand the full reason for the underperformance. What if it turns out that the problem wasn't the coach? (too late now I guess) Our board (and many supporters) are one trick ponies. Wait 2-3 years, if no finals win, sack the coach, rinse and repeat.

He has been a senior assistant for 1 year. He was a co- coach or some variation for another. He has now coached 2 years in his own right.

At no point, has our defence improved.

If he was at Richmond as an assistant for 1 year and was the genius behind their defence it must follow that he could have influenced our defence as an assistant.

As a senior coach he then made the fatal error with this group of not focusing on defence. Or maybe he did.

 

[P Money]

How many presidents? How many board members?

Barham has been on the board for 7 years. Brasher for 11. Madden 9 years. Muir 7 years. Wellman 5 years. Sheedy is new to the board but has had his hands in all things Essendon since time immemorial. Xavier has been CEO for going on 9 years and at the club for 13 years. And of course Dodo has been around for at least 20 years now.

That old boys club has achieved absolutely nothing in their time, bar Sheedy 22 years ago. In that time we have given no coach anywhere near even the shortest tenure of the boys on that list. Every couple of years it’s the coaches fault for poor performance, sack the coach.

Even if you happen to agree that every coach we’ve had for the past 15 years has been a poor coach, or all the players we’ve recruited over that time have been lazy or poor or don’t listen or whatever the knock on the list is, who selected those coaches and recruited those players? The boys club above. So either the stalwarts of the board and the club are incompetent to the point that they’re undermining efforts by decent coaches and players to drive success, or they’re incompetent to the point that they have continually selected poor coaches and recruited poor players. Either way the fault lies at their feet.



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[jmoo wan]

Barham has been on the board for 7 years. Brasher for 11. Madden 9 years. Muir 7 years. Wellman 5 years. Sheedy is new to the board but has had his hands in all things Essendon since time immemorial. Xavier has been CEO for going on 9 years and at the club for 13 years. And of course Dodo has been around for at least 20 years now.

That old boys club has achieved absolutely nothing in their time, bar Sheedy 22 years ago. In that time we have given no coach anywhere near even the shortest tenure of the boys on that list. Every couple of years it’s the coaches fault for poor performance, sack the coach.

Even if you happen to agree that every coach we’ve had for the past 15 years has been a poor coach, or all the players we’ve recruited over that time have been lazy or poor or don’t listen or whatever the knock on the list is, who selected those coaches and recruited those players? The boys club above. So either the stalwarts of the board and the club are incompetent to the point that they’re undermining efforts by decent coaches and players to drive success, or they’re incompetent to the point that they have continually selected poor coaches and recruited poor players. Either way the fault lies at their feet.



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oh come on mate - lay off Sheedy - he's just learning how to be on a board, it takes time to learn how to be on a board.

 

[T4P]

Barham has been on the board for 7 years. Brasher for 11. Madden 9 years. Muir 7 years. Wellman 5 years. Sheedy is new to the board but has had his hands in all things Essendon since time immemorial. Xavier has been CEO for going on 9 years and at the club for 13 years. And of course Dodo has been around for at least 20 years now.

That old boys club has achieved absolutely nothing in their time, bar Sheedy 22 years ago. In that time we have given no coach anywhere near even the shortest tenure of the boys on that list. Every couple of years it’s the coaches fault for poor performance, sack the coach.

Even if you happen to agree that every coach we’ve had for the past 15 years has been a poor coach, or all the players we’ve recruited over that time have been lazy or poor or don’t listen or whatever the knock on the list is, who selected those coaches and recruited those players? The boys club above. So either the stalwarts of the board and the club are incompetent to the point that they’re undermining efforts by decent coaches and players to drive success, or they’re incompetent to the point that they have continually selected poor coaches and recruited poor players. Either way the fault lies at their feet.



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Well said. I say this as a football fan and not a tigers fan - the fanbase needs to become more vocal against the boys clubs that run AFL administrations at the club level and the AFL level.

Sad to see Rutten go, but for your mob's sake, I hope this serves as a catalyst for a much needed change in governance. It's been too long since you've seen success - a healthy competition needs healthy clubs.

 

[yodellinhank]

Barham has been on the board for 7 years. Brasher for 11. Madden 9 years. Muir 7 years. Wellman 5 years. Sheedy is new to the board but has had his hands in all things Essendon since time immemorial. Xavier has been CEO for going on 9 years and at the club for 13 years. And of course Dodo has been around for at least 20 years now.

That old boys club has achieved absolutely nothing in their time, bar Sheedy 22 years ago. In that time we have given no coach anywhere near even the shortest tenure of the boys on that list. Every couple of years it’s the coaches fault for poor performance, sack the coach.

Even if you happen to agree that every coach we’ve had for the past 15 years has been a poor coach, or all the players we’ve recruited over that time have been lazy or poor or don’t listen or whatever the knock on the list is, who selected those coaches and recruited those players? The boys club above. So either the stalwarts of the board and the club are incompetent to the point that they’re undermining efforts by decent coaches and players to drive success, or they’re incompetent to the point that they have continually selected poor coaches and recruited poor players. Either way the fault lies at their feet.



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Worsfold was coach for 5 years. You think they sacked Hird too soon? Or maybe we should have bomber still and the side would be smoking?

 

[BomberFan355]

Has a coach over been sacked and then coached the same club again?

 

[The Dustbin]

see the problem with this line of thought is this is it - they have their scapegoat, no other people will be found responsible and they all keep their positions, and can blame it on da coach

Scapegoat, turn it up he is not a victim. That shit that Ess served up this year was was rubbish, he is accountable.

 

[jmoo wan]

Scapegoat, turn it up he is not a victim. That s**t that Ess served up this year was was rubbish, he is accountable.

I think you've probably understood maybe a fifth of my post.

 

[Wallaby]

Has a coach over been sacked and then coached the same club again?

Parkin at Carlton. Won at least one flag each stint.

 

[jmoo wan]

Scapegoat, turn it up he is not a victim. That s**t that Ess served up this year was was rubbish, he is accountable.

this is what happens when you act with emotion without the benefit of intellect.

 

[Westlo]

Has a coach over been sacked and then coached the same club again?

Afl Parkin
Football The Special One with Chelsea

 

[Mr Bultitude]

Thanks for giving it a crack Truck.

I'll always remember the Vince McMahon strut after that win over West Coast.

Hope you find success in the next chapter.

 

[Call Me Cake]

I was criticised by a lot for being critical of Truck, and bringing up the prospect of him not going into his 4th year at the club (yep, 4th). Was never a fan of the whole succession debacle and was criticised for my foresight then. A coach on training wheels trying to teach a team on training wheels.

But in the end, it came to be as such.

Club had the balls to call it and I couldn't be more proud. Here's to no more acceptance of treading water based on faith.

If a coach wants to take it on, they better be in the frame of mind that they must show signs visible to the eye (win or loss)!

Good luck to Ben as a person, I hope he does well in life, but he was not what we needed.

 

[the PILL]

One of my very first comments in this thread was that i hoped Ben had the stones and capacity to be able to achieve success, both onfield and dealing with the shadowie figures that pull the strings in this muttered up club...

Alas it wasn't to be and I'm genuinely sad for the guy...

 

[The Prosecutor]

Some good candidates out there.

 

[Call Me Cake]

Some good candidates out there.


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Knights' first 3 years were better than 2020-2022