{"id":246291,"date":"2025-10-28T12:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T12:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246291\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T12:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T12:20:12","slug":"former-essendon-coach-ben-rutten-appointed-port-adelaide-head-of-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246291\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Essendon coach Ben Rutten appointed Port Adelaide head of football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Essendon<\/a> coach Ben Rutten has joined Port Adelaide<\/a> as their new head of football. <\/p>\n

The moves comes amongst a merry-go-round of change behind the scenes at AFL clubs.<\/p>\n

Former Power head of football Chris Davies left the club to take up the vacant role at Carlton<\/a>, with Rutten now filling the void at the Power.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Curious case of top Melbourne Cup hope who might not run<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Got it wrong’: How Bombers nearly lucked into huge draft steal<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: AFLW superstar ruled out for season in major finals blow<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Rutten at Richmond in 2023.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rutten, who played 229 games for Adelaide<\/a> as a key defender across his career, served as Essendon coach across 2021 and 2022 before being sacked.<\/p>\n

He was given the role as part of a succession plan with veteran coach John Worsfold.<\/p>\n

Upon departing Essendon, he moved to Richmond<\/a> where he served as an assistant coach, where he had previously worked during the club’s triple premiership under Damien Hardwick.<\/p>\n

The Tigers thanked the 42-year-old for his time with the club.<\/p>\n

“We were delighted to have the opportunity to bring Ben back to Richmond three years ago, such was the impact he made during his previous time with us,” Richmond general manager of football Tim Livingstone told the club’s website.<\/p>\n

“His expertise has been a great asset to both our players and coaching staff. While we are disappointed to lose Ben, we are pleased for him that he has found an opportunity to further his career.<\/p>\n

“We wish Ben, his wife Kylie, and their boys, Jack and Bernie, all the best for the future.”<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Essendon coach Ben Rutten pictured with youngster Ben Hobbs in 2022.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Rutten now returns to South Australia, where he spent his entire AFL career.<\/p>\n

“We’re delighted to welcome Ben Rutten to the Port Adelaide Football Club as our General Manager of Football,” Port Adelaide chief Matthew Richardson told the club’s website.<\/p>\n

“We undertook a thorough process to target and identify the right person for our program, and Ben emerged as the standout candidate who best complements our group and the direction we’re heading.<\/p>\n

“Ben is a highly credentialed football person \u2013 a former player, assistant coach, and AFL senior coach \u2013 who will provide great leadership and support right across our club. He has had experience in successful programs and understands what an elite environment looks like.<\/p>\n

“What particularly impressed us is Ben’s focus on continual learning and development and his desire to broaden his career beyond coaching, complementing his unique skills and experience to move into football administration.<\/p>\n

“His most recent role as head of coaching and development at Richmond demonstrated exactly the kind of strategic football leadership we were seeking.”<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide enters a new era in 2026, under new coach Josh Carr, following the departure of Ken Hinkley. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Essendon coach Ben Rutten has joined Port Adelaide as their new head of football. The moves comes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-246291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}