What have you to say, Ben Rutten?

FOOTBALL’S about winning and losing, and with it come responsibility and accountability.

At Essendon, it’s time for Ben Rutten to explain himself.

Not in a club-produced interview. In the hot seat postmatch. Like, on Saturday, and explain to Essendon fans what he tried to do, why they played laboriously slow in the back after halftime, and why his team can have more disposals, more inside 50s and still be beaten by 35 points.

Forget the margin, it seemed like it was 65 points.

The Bombers are an inoffensive and unthreatening football team. And they are boring in lockdown Melbourne and the angst grows among fans ahead of Saturday night’s Dreamtime in Darwin game against Richmond.

You are allowed to lose with honour. Fremantle and a decimated North Melbourne were two examples at the weekend.

Show fight. A want to move the ball. Have a hunger for the contest and not a hunger – or is that a directive from Rutten/ Blake Caracella? – to win a short uncontested ball.

What’s happened to the team which wiped Collingwood with a ferocious attitude in Round 5? It wasn’t a terrible list then? This is Rutten’s team. It is also Caracella’s team.

They were installed by chief executive Xavier Campbell as coach and as the ball movement specialist, and Rutten was given a three-year deal, which was a Campbell appointment without, it must be said, a process of interviewing other prospective coaches.

Still, Rutten-Caracella need time to assess, plan and deliver. A knee-jerk reaction would be to say it’s failing. It’s not. It’s a work in progress which demands patience – again. It seems this club has asked for that for a decade now.

John Worsfold remains senior coach. His duties clearly centre on the day-to-day activities, and Rutten largely assumes the match-day role.

Why, then, doesn’t Rutten speak to the media/fans? What would that do to improve performance? Not a lot, but least it would bring fans into his confidence/ideals/plans.

Worsfold is leaving. Outgoing Essendon chairman Lindsay Tanner recently labelled him an Essendon hero.

Clearly, that’s for his steerage through rough seas, which was enormous, and not for success on the field.

Carlton great Mark Maclure says the Bombers have “embarrassed’’ Worsfold this year, plonking him on the bench while Rutten and Caracella plot from above, although Rutten has joined Worsfold on the bench in recent weeks.

‘’If Caracella and Rutten can run the thing on their own, why do they need John?” Maclure said on AFL360.

It’s a list built for speed, but the general feeling was Rutten/ Caracella would inject “Richmond-type’’ defence and ball movement.

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti looks unfit. He’s 27. Charlie Dixon and Tom Hawkins stripped weight. And Christian Petracca realised he had to dedicate himself more.

Tipungwuti needs to follow suit or he could, as Leigh Montagna suggested on Fox Footy on Sunday, be a trade option.