Following a distinguished 229-game career over 12 seasons with Adelaide, Ben Rutten, in his new capacity as a Richmond assistant coach, is now helping plot the Crows’ downfall in Friday night’s big Round 19 clash at Adelaide Oval.
Rutten has had a significant impact throughout his first year as Richmond’s backline coach, with the Tigers currently ranked the fourth best defensive team in the competition.
“He’s brought a new voice to the backline, which is really good,” talented Tiger tall forward Ty Vickery told 5AA.
“The players really like him, really respond well to him.
“He’s a terrific leader and I think some of the one-on-one work he’s been able to do with players like Alex Rance, Troy Chaplin, Jake Batchelor and Dylan Grimes – the ability to shut down opponents, but also win the ball back – has really taken their game to another level.
“They’re really operating well as a unit and a lot of that is probably to do with him.”
Rutten was affectionately known as ‘Truck’ during his league career at Adelaide due to his size and strength, which complemented the fine football attributes that he also possessed.
Vickery revealed that Truck remained an extremely difficult figure to outmanoeuvre in marking drills at training.
“He helps a lot of the ‘talls’ out, particularly pre-season, when we’re doing a lot of contested marking,” Vickery said.
“He’s still a very hard man to move . . . he’s still very strong and very thick.
“So, he’s probably still harder than some of the players to play on.”
