BEN RUTTEN lived a succession plan at Essendon, experienced the searing heat of a coaching hot seat and has now been installed to help chaperone Josh Carr's transition from assistant to senior coach in 2026, amid an off-season of transition at Port Adelaide.

Rutten is the most recent change to the football department at Alberton following Ken Hinkley's 13th and final season at the helm, joining Andy Collins (director of coaching), Stuart Dew (senior assistant), Darren Reeves (forwards), Luke Webster (backline), Jacob Surjan (SANFL coach) and Mitch Clisby (development) at the Power.

The 42-year-old spent the past three years at Richmond, returning to Punt Road to firstly reunite with Damien Hardwick as head of coaching performance and development, before becoming Adem Yze's key lieutenant across 2024 and 2025.

After his time as Essendon senior coach didn't last as long as he planned, Rutten had been contemplating a pivot into football operations when Chris Davies resigned as Power GM after more than a decade in the role. 

Rutten met with Port Adelaide CEO Matthew Richardson and list manager Jason Cripps and went through the process over the course of a month, before landing the gig back in his home state at the end of October. 

"It is certainly a role I've had some interest in the last 18 months, just looking at how big the role is of the head coach and how important the support is for building a high performance program. Then the opportunity came up at Port to have a talk to them. It just had a great feel about it with the people there, with the opportunity over the next four or five years. I think it's a really exciting time to be at Port Adelaide," Rutten told AFL.com.au.

"The appeal is the ability to have a really broad impact on performance and shaping the team, not only today but building a plan for a premiership program [over a] three, four, five-year period. I think it's a great position to be able to do that. 

"It is an opportunity to be able to support a head coach; it's such a big program these days; coaching is not just about the X's and O's, it’s a really big job now, you can really fill a big part of it.

"The feeling I got from Port is they've had a really successful program for a long period of time; people like to judge success on the number of premierships, but the last 10 years with Ken Hinkley he has been one of the most winningest coaches in a long time, so it has been a really high quality program. Now I feel there is a lot of new faces in the coaching program and football department more broadly."

Paths to the GM position are varied across the AFL. Some were lawyers (Charlie Gardiner), primary school principals (Rob McCartney) and bank managers (Danny Daly) in a past life. Others also oversee list management (Andrew Mackie, Jason McCartney, Sam Power and now Craig Cameron). 

Rutten is the latest former senior coach to transition into the role running a football department, joining Alan Richardson at Melbourne and Leon Cameron at Sydney. But is this pivot the end of his coaching journey?  

"I'm not sure. I love coaching and I love being able to teach and develop the players, but also feel this is an important role and a great role for me to grow into and learn. That is certainly where my focus is right now," Rutten said. 

"I think it is a slightly different angle to be able to view the program on and get a broader understanding of the business; more dealings with the board; more dealings with that other side of the business; I think it's going to be a fantastic opportunity for me to grow personally and also grow with the group that we’ve currently got at Port Adelaide."

Richmond initially helped put Rutten on a path to becoming a senior coach at Essendon – Adam Kingsley, Craig McRae and Andrew McQualter are also part of Hardwick's coaching tree – then provided a landing spot after being sacked by the Bombers 44 games in.

While learning off Hardwick was crucial in Rutten's first stint at Tigerland, observing experienced administrators Tim Livingstone and Blair Hartley up close more recently helped guide him towards the next chapter at Alberton.

"I've been pretty fortunate over two stints to be involved with Richmond. Seeing it build and seeing premierships and more recently transitioning into a rebuild phase. Seeing Tim Livingstone who has been there the whole time, supported by Blair Hartley, those guys have been really important for me, along with Dimma and Adem Yze," he said. 

"I'm really grateful for my time at Richmond. Seeing all those things unfold and seeing the importance of that role for the senior coach – I saw that myself being a head coach – I've been pretty fortunate to see up close some great footy managers in my time, from Neil Balme to Dan Richardson to Josh Mahoney to Tim Livingstone and Blair Hartley – so I have been really fortunate in that respect to be able to see some slightly different approaches."

Rutten believes his experience in the coaches box will be valuable for first-time senior coach Josh Carr in 2026, who was appointed Hinkley's successor on the eve of last season, following months of discussions internally and speculation externally. 

"I think that is one of the things I can add some value in. Having been part of a succession plan, having been a head coach in the past, not all footy managers have had that experience. I think that's something that is unique that I can bring," he said.

"Having known what the head coach goes through, it's really easy to be able to talk though what they go through and what the demands are, but until you've actually experienced it and sat in the chair, you don't really understand what it's like. To have some empathy for Josh in different stages throughout his coaching time I think will be really important."

When Rutten retired at the end of 2014 after 229 games for Adelaide, where he rose from the rookie list to be named All-Australian in 2005 and picked in the Hall of Fame tribute game in 2008, moving across town would have been egregious. 

But more than a decade on, after completing a Master of Coaching at Queensland University to go with a degree in exercise science and coaching courses, Rutten is returning to South Australia to take the next step in his career. 

"It has been 11 years since I was a player and since I was in Adelaide. That freshness and rawness of finishing at Adelaide and jumping straight into Port isn't there; I've been in Victoria for 11 years and understand how the system works," he said.

"If you asked me 11 years ago, it might have been a bit of a different answer. I've certainly had a deep respect of Port Adelaide for a long period of time. They've got such a rich history and heritage. To be able to be part of Showdowns as a player, to be able to watch Showdowns from afar and now to be part of Showdowns from a different angle for the other team, it's going to be pretty exciting. It is one of the real rivalries in the AFL. We've got such passionate supporters, along with Adelaide."

Port Adelaide reported back for day one of pre-season under a new regime on Monday. The dawn of a new era at Alberton.