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

[yodellinhank]

It's been posted on BigFooty before, can't dig it up via Google. From memory it was ~ 10 years or so ago, conducted on / with AFL head coaches, might have been with Victoria University.

Someone like Lore would have read it if I was to take a guess?

I googled and just got a few articles rather than studies, might have another dig later tonight.

Better that it was conducted with the coaches than the players, but you've still got 17/18ths of them not winning the premiership. Ask those who know the Jock McHale medallist in any given year and I bet they say they're a prick.

 

[owen87]

Ask those who know the Jock McHale medallist in any given year and I bet they say they're a prick.

Doubtful.

Most head coaches will be pretty solid at building relationships with their players and line coaches, the idea of a head coaching shouting at players to motivate them is pretty discredited, especially in the professional era, it might be 5% of what they do whilst the man-management is the bulk of their job.

Ross Lyon seems like a real prick, but plenty of his ex-players (the best 22 ones) love him.

 

[yodellinhank]

Doubtful.

Most head coaches will be pretty solid at building relationships with their players and line coaches, the idea of a head coaching shouting at players to motivate them is pretty discredited, especially in the professional era, it might be 5% of what they do whilst the man-management is the bulk of their job.

Ross Lyon seems like a real prick, but plenty of his ex-players (the best 22 ones) love him.

That players can love a coach does not equate to the coach feeling feelings themself. Ross cut Luke Ball like a stone cold killer. There's evil in his eyes.

 

[Lore]

It's been posted on BigFooty before, can't dig it up via Google. From memory it was ~ 10 years or so ago, conducted on / with AFL head coaches, might have been with Victoria University.

Someone like Lore would have read it if I was to take a guess?

I don't recall that specifically, there was some other thesis thing I was reading that was about corporate management at AFL clubs iirc.

The stuff about relationships etc is probably from a Rutten interview where he was talking about all the coaching courses and management courses he's been doing, also some book he was reading as well. I don't recall the exact details but he does seem to be ready to adopt pretty much any sort of approach necessary.

And as far as being too soft with them, I thought the whole thing with Rutten and Worsfold is that Worsfold was too soft on them and Merrett in particular wanted more direction from the coach, which Rutten was willing to give and therefore Merrett re-signed? Wasn't that one of the outcomes of the review thing at the end of 2020?

 

[ghostdog]

honestly it raises an interesting point though - to be a successful coach at the highest level requires a high level of both ruthlessness and emotional intelligence - a duel-attribute that is probably not all that common in people

It means you risk coming across as an unapproachable passive-aggressive dick whose 'emotional intelligence' appears fabricated. My workplace has one.

 

[I Remember Bluey]

And as far as being too soft with them, I thought the whole thing with Rutten and Worsfold is that Worsfold was too soft on them and Merrett in particular wanted more direction from the coach, which Rutten was willing to give and therefore Merrett re-signed? Wasn't that one of the outcomes of the review thing at the end of 2020?

 

[Lore]

It means you risk coming across as an unapproachable passive-aggressive dick whose 'emotional intelligence' appears fabricated. My workplace has one.

Corporate psychopath. It's a thing.

 

[Lore]

View attachment 1329390

You'd fit right in in the SFA

 

[owen87]

That players can love a coach does not equate to the coach feeling feelings themself. Ross cut Luke Ball like a stone cold killer. There's evil in his eyes.

Being able to make difficult decisions doesn’t inherently make someone a psychopath.

 

[yodellinhank]

Corporate psychopath. It's a thing.

The most successful corporates are all psychopaths

Being able to make difficult decisions doesn’t inherently make someone a psychopath.

Only one of them has a premiership medallion as it goes.

 

[yodellinhank]

Why The New Age Coach Is Here To Stay - Marc McGowan

Article from 2018

 

[justlookingaround]

It means you risk coming across as an unapproachable passive-aggressive dick whose 'emotional intelligence' appears fabricated. My workplace has one.

That's how Buckley came off to me after his reinventing of himself in 2018

 

[ant555]

Truck can be pretty blunt when he needs to be . You do not need to be a raving lunatic to make hard choices or deliver messages. Hardwicke - zero flags as a ranter and raver . 3 flags when more controlled and seen more as hard but fair by those on the inside . Bevo is not a lunatic . Simpson the same. Melbourne told Goodwin he had to modify some of the Agro.
Even Clarko has been big on player relationships despite being a bit of a hard task master.

The biggest issue with Worsfold was he did not build relationships with a lot of the players. They had trouble connecting with him .

 

[owen87]

That's how Buckley came off to me after his reinventing of himself in 2018

I think it was a matter of Buckley loosening the reins a little in the short term, but never really changing.

 

[yodellinhank]

Truck can be pretty blunt when he needs to be . You do not need to be a raving lunatic to make hard choices or deliver messages. Hardwicke - zero flags as a ranter and raver . 3 flags when more controlled and seen more as hard but fair by those on the inside . Bevo is not a lunatic . Simpson the same. Melbourne told Goodwin he had to modify some of the Agro.
Even Clarko has been big on player relationships despite being a bit of a hard task master.

The biggest issue with Worsfold was he did not build relationships with a lot of the players. They had trouble connecting with him .

Hardwick (savage ex-hawthorne assistant reference ) was seen in a different light because he won flags.same bloke was bloke supposedly "fracturing the group" with his relationship post flags.

Bevo is a lunatic.

 

[Lore]

Nice long interview with Twomey, recommended reading for your lunch break I reckon - or pre-game reading perhaps.

How early finals exit lit fire in Bomber bellies

With lessons learned from a tough finals exit, the Bombers are back and more committed than ever in 2022.

www.essendonfc.com.au

 

[Keystone agony]

Ive been pretty negative about my predictions of the clubs finishing positions in past years and i reckon last year was the first year that surprised me for a long time

Optimism continues to increase day by day with me for the 2022 season. Im starting to ask myself why we cant be a better side than a team like Port Adelaide

Alot does rely on the fitness of an injury prone group that has never shown any durability. Namely Stringer and Tippa heading into 2022 but i feel we can get by without the latter for the first part of the season. He will be required to win a final though.

 

[fairbump_playon]

It means you risk coming across as an unapproachable passive-aggressive dick whose 'emotional intelligence' appears fabricated. My workplace has one.

Mine has one as well. Just wish it wasn't me.

 

[Maxabillions]

Ive been pretty negative about my predictions of the clubs finishing positions in past years and i reckon last year was the first year that surprised me for a long time

Optimism continues to increase day by day with me for the 2022 season. Im starting to ask myself why we cant be a better side than a team like Port Adelaide

Alot does rely on the fitness of an injury prone group that has never shown any durability. Namely Stringer and Tippa heading into 2022 but i feel we can get by without the latter for the first part of the season. He will be required to win a final though.

Bit harsh to say tippa has never shown any durability after playing 120 games in a row or whatever it was

 

[TheUnicorn]

We finishing top 6 this year boys.

 

[Keystone agony]

Bit harsh to say tippa has never shown any durability after playing 120 games in a row or whatever it was

His durability for the past 8 months hasnt been overly great

But was more saying that in general our whole group hasnt shown durability, not Tippa.

Tippa is mentioned as hes returning from injury and fitness concerns along with whatever off field issues hes had

 

[Lore]

Yet another interview haha

Ben Rutten: SEN Breakfast - March 3, 2022 - Dons on Radio

Ben Rutten discusses the Bombers' expectation that Jake Stringer will suit up for round one, how Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti is in a "good space" and looking to ramp up his training, how Jake Kelly has "fitted in seamlessly," why Andy McGrath and Zach Merrett have been training with the Bombers'...

omny.fm

Stringer?

Yeah look certainly he's a really important player for us. He was having a pretty good preseason for us up until a few weeks ago when he was starting to get a little bit of groin soreness. We decided to be a little bit conservative with him and take him out of the program for a couple of weeks so he didn't play last week and he's not going to play this week for us but if everything continues along with his rehab we're expecting him to be available for round 1 for us. So not a huge concern for us at this time of year, we'd certainly love to get some game time into him but yeah, expecting him to be fit and healthy for round 1.

Walla?

He's in a pretty good space and I think he's improving all the time which is the main thing for us. He's had a couple of - as you said without going into too many of the finer details – he's had a few things he's been managing and working with off field and all part of his continued growth as a person and we've been fully supportive of Anthony and making sure we're there for him as best we can. I've been working really closely with Anthony, spoke to him the other day, he's really keen to start progressing and doing more and more within his training. So we're continually looking to build him up over the next few weeks, continue to build up his fitness base get the work in that he needs to be able to set him up to return at his best. And I think ultimately that's what we want that's what he wants and we want to make sure that we're sending him out there in the red and black and exciting the fans like we know he can.

What are your expectations of Walla? Best case?

Best case scenario is get a really good continuity in his preparation and his training, and I think that's going to be the best thing that's going to set him up for us to be able to send him back. The realistic in the early parts of the season I don't think we're going to see much of him out on the AFL field, but certainly looking to as his season progresses that we're best setting him up to return and we want to see him back at his best. And I think that's the main thing we're trying to focus on at the moment. He's in a good space, he loves coming into the footy club, he's getting all the support that he would want and expect from the club and from the players as well.

Defence? Rid Red Stew Lav Hep played almost exclusively in defence. Was that the plan?

Yeah I think Nick Hind

19

Nick Hind

Age

29

Ht

180cm

Wt

78kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

3.5

3star

M

2.0

2star

T

1.9

4star

MG

117.0

2star

D

9.5

2star

K

4.0

1star

HB

5.5

3star

M

2.0

2star

T

2.0

3star

MG

117.0

2star

D

10.2

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.0

3star

T

2.2

4star

is probably the other one that I'm not sure if you mentioned there, but he's another one that we brought to the club at the end of last season and played a lot of footy for us in the backline. And I think you're right when you look at the backline on paper at the start of the year it was, I was really excited by where I thought that group could get to, but I was also aware that they haven't played a hell of a lot of footy down back or together which I think is the key part of any good footy club, you need a good stable backline who have played a lot of footy together. So they hadn't done that at the start of last year and to get the amount of footy into them last season and watch them continually progress and evolve. I still think there's a lot of growth and improvement in that backline group but I really like the group and the mix and they all compliment each other with their different skill sets and they're at a good age where I think we're going to be able to see them play together for a long time. That was the really exciting part of last year I thought from a coaches' perspective is how well they started to gel together and they want to build something pretty special back there which I'm keen to support.

Adding Jake Kelly

29

Jake Kelly

Age

29

Ht

190cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.5

4star

K

8.3

3star

HB

6.3

4star

M

4.6

4star

T

2.6

4star

MG

157.8

2star

D

8.1

2star

K

6.3

3star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.6

4star

MG

104.1

2star

D

14.8

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

5.8

4star

M

6.0

5star

T

4.2

5star

MG

107.0

2star

?

Yeah Jake's been great, he came over from Adelaide, obviously a more mature, experienced player. He's fitted in seamlessly and to see him running around last week for us was fantastic so he's another one who is going to add another aspect and another string to our bow down there in the backline group.

Practice game last week, McGrath in defence?

Yeah he did, he played a bit more back there and I think we might even play Zach Merrett down there a little bit as well. Both of those guys have been training a little bit with our backline group and in our defensive half. And like we do with some of our other midfielders where we play them more in the forward line and Darcy Parish

3

Darcy Parish

Age

26

Ht

180cm

Wt

81kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

20.4

5star

K

9.2

4star

HB

11.2

5star

M

3.2

3star

T

3.3

5star

CL

3.2

5star

D

16.6

4star

K

7.4

3star

HB

9.1

5star

M

1.4

2star

T

2.0

3star

CL

3.1

4star

D

22.2

5star

K

7.6

3star

HB

14.6

5star

M

3.2

4star

T

4.4

5star

CL

3.6

5star

and Shiel and Caldwell and Langford, we're just trying to make sure we've got a really good spread of those players and that that midfield group is more expansive now than just the three midfielders that we see on the team sheet. We want to make sure that we spread that midfield group across the ground a little bit better and making sure we've got some really smart ball users and decision makers like both Andy and Zach are, and making sure we're getting the ball in their hands as much as we can.

Impressed with Hobbs so far?

Yeah we certainly have, I mean we've kind of been pretty fortunate in the last couple of years, we've had Archie Perkins and Nik Cox play a fair bit of footy last year, out from covid and not having played, so we're really pleased with the amount of footy that they were able to do and I think Ben Hobbs is going to be pretty similar, in terms of he's physically more developed than some guys that come through in their first season, and we've been really pleased with the way Ben has adapted to the AFL program, the way he goes about his work, he's really professional, he's a driven young man and he wants to be the best he can be as quick as he can. So we love his attitude and we've been really, really pleased with what we've seen from him so far. You know I think he's certainly got the capacity to play some AFL footy this year that's for sure.

Young coach, Gia was interviewed for the Carlton job, how important is it to have a stable coaching panel at this early stage for you?

Yeah look it is important, um I think we've got a really good supportive coaching group. Gia is one that you mentioned, we've got Black Caracella as well and Leigh Tudor who is a really experienced coach along with Dale Tapping who we added this season, and Cam Roberts as well who kind of supports Tudor with our development stuff so those guys have all been - apart from Dale who is new this season - all of those guys have been with us for a couple of years at least and it's such an important part of coaching these days, you know, to think your senior coaches would be able to do everything for 45 players is such an unrealistic expectation these days so the assistant coaching team and the support we have at the club are just so important with watch we do on match day and I've been really fortunate so far to have a really supportive capable group there to help develop the players.

Every team needs a good ruckman... Draper - how good can he be?

Yeah I think you're right and when we look at the rule changes, the 6-6-6 rule at centre bounce has had the biggest impact on the game with all the slight rule variations we've had over the past few years and I think we only need to look at the grand final last year and the importance of the centre bounce and the ruckman is a key player in that so we are pretty fortunate that we think we've got three really capable competent ruckman on our list, Sam Draper, Andrew Phillips, and also Nick Bryan who won our VFL best and fairest last season, so I don't know if Drapes is the one we like talking about because we just love his enthusiasm and the way he goes about his business and it's really like he's played less than 20 games of AFL footy but we talk like he's a seasoned veteran because he plays that way and the way he leads the guys and has a little presence around our midfielders is something we just love as coaches and fans and I think he's a bit of an extrovert out on the ground and plays with some real spirit that I certainly love that so he's a real leader amongst our midfield group. So as you said he's had a fantastic preseason and we're hoping he can keep fit and healthy and get a full block of AFL footy into him and I think he's going to put a smile on a few Essendon supporters' faces throughout the course of the season.

Malthouse's prediction?

I think this is the time of year everybody, every team, without the scoreboard, every team is feeling really good about themselves, and we're kind of in a similar situation to that. We've been able to put a program together throughout our pre-season to hopefully best prepare our boys to impact the season. There's no doubt last year being able to make the finals and have that experience and in the end players get knocked out by the grand final team was a fantastic experience for our guys. There's a gap between where we are at the moment and the very best teams in the competition but we're trying to put the best program in place and create the best environment to be able to bridge that gap as quickly as we possibly can. I think it generally takes the first 5-6 rounds of the season to have a look at what the teams are doing and who is doing what with different teams and we're really keen to keep progressing and improving but it's certainly the program we're putting in place and lets hope he's right.

How's the farm going?

Farm's been good yes, so it's been nearly 12 months now, I've made a bit of a tree change to try and get a bit of... [what have you got?] we've got some cattle and plenty of kangaroos and wombats. A couple of these Scottish Highland Cattle so more of a lifestyle... [a novelty cow?] ... yeah a novelty cow haha

Still not allowed a tractor because it's dangerous...

Nah nah I've got a tractor, that's as close to a farmer as I've got. That's how I justify my farmer label is because I've got a tractor so. [what sort?] not sure [what colour is it?] it's a red one.

 

[Beerfish]

Hopefully he's not trying to get the tractor pregnant too.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Hopefully he's not trying to get the tractor pregnant too.

He might have heard of (in)famous Barossa Valley local Diesel Dick when he was living in Adelaide.

 

[Mr Mojo Risin]

Hopefully he's not trying to get the tractor pregnant too.

Might be on to something there, I reckon a trucktor could be a winner with the farming public.