David Barham’s first public address as Essendon president has been slammed as a ‘train wreck’ after the new Bombers boss failed to land Alastair Clarkson as coach while not even bothering to tell the current coach the club was looking at him.
Four-time AFL premiership winner Clarkson was today named North Melbourne coach for the next five seasons despite an 11th hour pitch from the Bombers.
Barham had a shocker in front of the cameras as he was grilled on Clarkson and Rutten
Barham made the late charge to try and sign Clarkson on Monday, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Worst of all, current coach Ben Rutten was not consulted.
It has seemingly rendered Rutten’s position untenable and a final decision on his future will be made by Sunday.
A decision on the future of Rutten will be made by Sunday, if he doesn’t fall on his sword before
Barham fronted the media today and stumbled and stammered his way through the tough questioning about how he had treated Rutten in the pursuit of Clarkson.
‘It’s certainly hurt him and I’m not happy about that,’ he said.
‘But at the same time … If the best coach of the last 20 years is out there, and has an interest in coaching Essendon, I would be derelict in my duty as a director and a president to not go and talk to him, which I did,’ he said.
‘(I) fully accept he’s made a decision to go to North Melbourne, and congratulations to them – well done.
‘Tough on Ben, yep, for sure – but that’s the sort of thing I think we have to do and what I have to do for this club to improve and get better and go forward.
‘Not be horrible to Ben, try to be nice to Ben, try to be honest with Ben, but make hard decisions so that we can improve. That’s what I did; it’s been uncomfortable for a lot of people, I appreciate that, and mostly Ben.
Bombers fans were less than impressed with the Barham media conference on Friday
‘It’s certainly hurt him, and it hasn’t helped, and I’m not happy about that.’
Unsurprisingly, Bombers fans were not happy with the way the events played out or their new president’s response.
‘The coach ought to tell Essendon to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, they have treated him in terrible manner,’ Kenneth Briggs said.
‘Is David Barham trying to get Ben Rutten to leave without a pay out by disrespecting him in public so many times that he feels he has to leave to maintain his dignity?’ Paul Montgomery asked.
‘As a Carlton supporter I am absolutely thrilled with the direction Essendon* is going in under David Barham. A complete train wreck,’ Michael Nicholls said.
‘David Barham came across like the last person on earth you’d ever want to work for,’ Rebecca Hayne added.
Rutten admitted he did not know the club was going to pursue Clarkson on Monday.
Now the club might be spared swinging the axe on Rutten, with the under siege coach to make a decision on his own fate ahead of their match against Richmond on Saturday night.
‘I didn’t have any idea of what was going on (on Monday),’ he admitted.
‘I’m the coach of this footy club and I made a commitment to serve the Essendon footy club, the members, supporters and my players and I’m going to continue to do that the best that I can until someone tells me otherwise,’ he said.
Asked what he expects to occur on Sunday, Rutten replied: ‘I don’t know. I don’t have any expectations.’
‘I have spoken to Dave [since the Clarkson reports emerged] and I feel like he said that there’s things if he had his time again he would do them differently and we have had a conversation around that.’
‘I don’t think he was entirely pleased with the way things transpired throughout the course of the week.
More Bombers fans express their disappointment in how the events of the last week played out
‘I suppose what Dave said to me was that if he had his time again he would’ve done things slightly different in terms of communication,’ he said.
Clarkson himself said the overtures from the Bombers had come ‘far too late’ to seriously consider.
‘I didn’t really want to have ongoing discussions with the Bombers, to be fair,’ Clarkson said.
North Melbourne officially unveiled Clarkson as their coach today and he said Essendon were never a serious consideration because their pitch came far too late
‘I met briefly with David Barham on Tuesday and then I knew I was going to be away on Wednesday and Thursday. We were just so far down the track with the North Melbourne and the GWS decisions that the whole process just came far too late to give (Essendon) really serious consideration.
‘Out of fairness to the people that I know at the Bombers … it was really out of respect for those people and I had to repay that respect in a dignified way and at least listen to what they had to say.
‘But the due diligence required to actually consider coaching a club takes a hell of a lot more than four days for me. It just ran out of time. In a different set of circumstances and at a different time, who knows? But this was the right fit for me right now.’