Alastair Clarkson’s announcement that he would join North Melbourne rather than the powerful Bombers will be remembered as a day of abject humiliation for the fallen Essendon Football Club.
Essendon lost the battle of Clarkson for a variety of reasons, but the underlying causes were that the Dons did not act decisively in making a direct play for Clarkson months earlier and that this prevarication bred disunity within, which finally detonated in a board coup on Monday.
Ben Rutten has come under pressure in a disappointing season for Essendon.Credit:AFL Photos
The fateful moment came in mid-season when the Essendon board and hierarchy chose to complete an internal, rather than external review, as some directors, headed by new president David Barham, proposed.
Had they reviewed and decided to remove Rutten then, via the lens of outside experts, they might well have snared Clarkson.
But they dithered and the fall-out from that failure will be significant. Staff are angry, so are the fans, who had seen in Clarkson an opportunity to finally end two decades of entrenched mediocrity, in which political considerations — how it appears, rather than whether it works — have prevented consistently clear-sighted decisions.
Barham’s pitch to Clarkson came weeks too late, as Clarkson more or less confirmed. The Bombers offered Clarkson essentially the same terms as North — five years on a truckload of money — but they were bidding for a property whose eventual owner had already paid the deposit, in moral terms.
New Essendon president David Barham on Friday.Credit:Getty Images
Sonja Hood, a woman of quiet dignity and considerable resolve, stands vindicated for her lead role in the Clarkson coup. North and Hood were decisive where the Dons had dawdled. AFL female presidents are on a winning streak.
While Clarkson spoke sincerely of his romantic links to North — and the influence of his formative coach John “Kanga” Kennedy and the club have been profound, in helping him cope with tragedy — it is what North did in the present, and the future offered by Hood, that was most telling.
The result leaves Essendon bruised and Ben Rutten’s coaching position almost certainly doomed, with the club board meeting on Sunday to determine whether he continues as contracted. If there is no nice way to remove a coach, Carlton managed this process far better than Essendon when they jettisoned David Teague — having known he would not survive the external review.
We may never know whether Rutten was a capable coach, since his reign will likely be even shorter than Australian prime ministers. His Dons did not defend the field competently, but their game style, as a colleague noted, was no more deficient than that of the Essendon board in assessing the coaching landscape.
Rightly, a candid Barham has said that the board needs to be reviewed and perhaps there should be a cultural audit of the club, too. Essendon must ask why they’ve become a place where careers in football have foundered — and it cannot be simply sheeted solely to the terrible ASADA saga.
Ben Rutten watches over training on Friday.Credit:Getty Images
As officials at rival clubs predicted, it was inevitable that there would be a push for James Hird, the exiled prince, as Rutten’s replacement — a measure of Essendon’s difficulty in surmounting the past and how a segment of the club is far more forgiving of Essendon people than outsiders.
Club sources say there is an expectation that Hird will apply for the position, once it is vacant. Kevin Sheedy, the club’s other iconic figure, is openly in favour of Hird. But it is unclear how the remainder of the board will view what would be a highly contentious call.
GWS assistant coaches James Hird and Dean Solomon speak with Giants interim coach Mark McVeigh.Credit:Getty Images
Essendon’s need for intervention from outside has never been greater, starting with Barham’s review, which will involve input from a corporate financial firm, such as PwC and board member and KPMG executive Dorothy Hisgrove. It is often forgotten that Sheedy himself — an unmatched symbol of Essendon heritage — was a consummate outsider when he transformed the club in the ’80s.
As embarrassed as Essendon are, they can take solace in the reality that their great foes that meet on Sunday, Carlton and Collingwood, also appeared to be states of disrepute during 2021, beset with board battles, defeat and coach problems.
It can and it must turn. But it will only turn when Essendon becomes a club that pulls together.
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