Essendon AFL coach Ben Rutten avoids sacking as club president stands down after shocking loss

Essendon coach Ben Rutten will reportedly stay in the role for the time being despite club president Paul Brasher’s looming exit.

Former Channel 10 sport boss David Barham is among the favourites to take over from Brasher, whose resignation could be confirmed on Monday.

The upheaval comes after a snap board meeting on Monday in the wake of a disastrous 84-point defeat to Port Adelaide.

Rutten and his dejected players leave the field after the drubbing by Port Adelaide on Sunday. He reportedly will not be replaced as coach for the team’s final game of the season

Fans like this diehard (pictured at the Port Adelaide game) have had enough of the club’s struggles on and off the field 

It was a second consecutive embarrassing loss for Essendon, having fallen by 27 points against GWS in their previous outing.

Brasher’s exit would appear to put coach Ben Rutten’s job in the firing line, with the president having publicly backed in Rutten through the club’s football operations review.

Brasher had previously declared the review would not oust Rutten and that he would see out the final year of his contract, adding the review would focus on support the football department rather than culling from it.

Essendon announced a review after winning just two of their first 11 games this season, led by football director Sean Wellman.

The Bombers had improved in recent times and lifted their record to 7-12 before the recent poor results.

The underwhelming season follows on from an impressive 2021 campaign where Essendon defied pre-season expectations to make finals.

President Paul Brasher (right, with CEO Xavier Campbell, left) is expected to step down from the position on Monday

Zach Merrett’s face says it all as he leaves Marvel Stadium after he and his teammates were embarrassed by the Power

After the Power defeat, Rutten admitted it was a performance level the club could not tolerate.

‘Certainly it’s not a great result in terms of tonight’s performance, no question about that,’ he told reporters.

‘It’s about us being really strong and really clear as a footy club and as a group of players about where we’re going and what we’re trying to build.

‘It’s never gonna be smooth sailing, clean progression to becoming a great team, but performances like that, it’s not stuff that we can tolerate or accept and we won’t.’

Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd said the Bombers ‘couldn’t be any further’ from being a great football club, and called for a complete external review.

‘It’s been a disaster of a season … when you play with no spirit, and you play with no heart, it’s the way you lose,’ he told AFL Media.

‘That was as bad a loss as you could ever imagine with the lack of spirit, the lack of defensive pressure that they played with and that’ll fall on the coach.

‘You’d expect something has to give whether it’s at board level, administration level, the coaching staff, you just can’t accept performances like that.’