BOMBERS PLAN FOR FUTURE
ADAMANT its succession plan is about putting family first, Essendon is confident of achieving a smooth handover when Ben Rutten replaces John Worsfold in 2021.
Worsfold will see out the final season of his Essendon coaching contract in 2020 — his fifth at the helm — before returning to Western Australia where his family is based.
The decision to promote the highly-regarded Rutten, who helped deliver Richmond a breakthrough premiership in 2017 before being poached by Essendon for the 2019 campaign, follows months of speculation about Worsfold’s future. Rumours swirled late in the season that Worsfold would be sacked if his team did not make the finals.
The Bombers scraped through but were smashed by West Coast in their elimination final, matching their only other finals berth under his tenure in 2017. Worsfold’s family returned to Perth early last year and the 50-year-old said he couldn’t justify remaining apart from them beyond his current term.
“Sometimes I can put too much into my football,” he said. “Over my 30 years I’ve been involved in the game, I’ve given up a fair bit and made a lot of sacrifices.
“When you’re a young man and a young footballer, you can do it. You feel like it’s just you. You’re a single man. But my kids are giving up a lot at the moment. We’re a close family and as all kids are, they’re in those important phases of their lives and I’m not there as regularly as I’d like to be.”
Chief executive Xavier Campbell said he had been talking openly with Worsfold about his future and a potential succession plan for the past 18 months, adding that the decision had not been driven by their performance this season.
With Fremantle and Adelaide yet to fill their head coaching vacancies for 2020, the Bombers moved decisively to shore up their coaching set up. Rutten confirmed he had been approached by the Crows following Don Pyke’s sacking but had affirmed his commitment to Essendon.
“To be a senior coach and to have a 12-month period with the most experienced coach in the game at the moment is huge,” Rutten said.