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SELECT 👉 Seddon Park commentary
“Thrilled”: Port’s off-field set up strengthened by Rutten addition
Andrew Slevison • October 29th, 2025 10:01 am
Port Adelaide’s footy department is looking fairly strong after the addition of Ben Rutten.
The former Adelaide defender, Essendon senior coach and recent Richmond assistant was on Tuesday appointed as the Power’s new head of football, replacing Chris Davies after his shift to Carlton.
Club great Kane Cornes credited Port for keeping the Rutten appointment under wraps and says they have been impressed by his intent on bettering himself in all facets of footy.
“Port Adelaide have gone about it in a different way to identify someone who has a lot of experience in the game as a quality player, a quality assistant coach, a head coach, and was playing a vital role at Richmond as a senior assistant coach,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“Port Adelaide have said that they were really impressed by his want and his continual thirst for knowledge to better himself. Clearly he has tried to do that whilst being involved in the game. He’s played a variety of different roles which will help him.
“You’ve got to oversee the coaching structure, the AFLW, the SANFL program - it is a big, big role.
“He just wasn’t a name that was top of mind. No one had even floated Ben Rutten as a potential candidate for this role so they’ve kept it pretty secretive which is a credit to them and to him.
“I can’t sit here and say what a great appointment because I just didn’t have any line of sight of it but you’ve just got to trust the footy club that they’ve clearly done an extensive process and gone through an exhaustive one.
“They’ve landed here and let’s hope it’s a success.”
SEN’s Sam Edmund, who broke the news on Tuesday, says that the Power are over the moon to land the Crows great who will oversee a brand new coaching group alongside first-year senior coach Josh Carr.
Rutten follows the recent appointments of Hawthorn legend Andy Collins as Director of Coaching, Port cult hero Stuart Dew as senior assistant, and another ex-Power player in Jacob Surjan as SANFL and development coach.
“They’re thrilled to get him, they’re delighted, after speaking to them yesterday,” he said.
“But they’ll be doing well just to learn each other’s names early on. The change from the coach down - Andy Collins comes in, Stuart Dew comes in, Luke Webster comes in.
“There’s changes all the way through. Rutten as well, a new SANFL coach in Jacob Surjan.”
It has the Power looking strong off the field following Ken Hinkley’s tenure with Cornes praising Port for bolstering their footy department ahead of Carr’s debut season.
“A couple of these were through necessity that happened late, a lot of scrambling,” Cornes said further.
“But you can see the increase in the soft cap has here there as well. Josh Carr has a fully bolstered footy department, he’s really well supported which he needed to be as a first-time coach.
“They’ve invested the extra money from the soft cap into having the best footy department hat you can. There’s also been a change in their high performance structure.
“Off the field it looks set, it’s about what you do on the field now, isn’t it.”
The Power finished 13th with nine wins in Hinkley’s final season at the helm which was considered a handover year to Carr.
