Essendon manager Ben Rutten has been criticized for the tone at his post-match press conference following Sunday’s loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

The Bombers clawed back more than 30 points early in the game and held a lead in the final quarter, but the Pies transitioned the ball with alarming ease in the final minute to give Jamie Elliott a shot. to win the game. , which he duly delivered.

In his post-match press conference, Rutten was disappointed with the final result and in particular the first quarter, but said there were positives to take from the game.

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“Everything was disappointing. Like I said, it was disappointing that we hit the post, we couldn’t prepare, the ball shouldn’t come so fast, we should waste that ball out of bounds. He scores a great goal,” he said.

“Unfortunately that’s part of the game tonight and one of the lessons we have to learn, but I’m happy. They’ve won nine in a row now and we’ve put ourselves in a position to win the game, that’s what I want us to get out of it.

“There are enough things in our game that we need to keep working on, we’re far from perfect, but we need to do it more consistently. I’m more concerned about our first quarter than the 30 last seconds.

Former Hawthorn star Ben Dixon told Fox Footy’s First Crack that Rutten’s comments left a sour taste, given the team’s structural collapse during the final play.

“Ben Rutten got it horribly wrong saying ‘we’re happy with that’. If you’re happy with that, you’re not the right man for the job, because I’d be boiling over it said Dixon.

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“It’s up to the coach, that’s 100 per cent. If it was two players you’d probably accept that those players probably missed it here or missed the message or weren’t trained correctly, but for all, missing it is a collective point for the trainer.

Co-panellist and former St Kilda midfielder Leigh Montagna was another left disappointed by Rutten’s comments.

“It was kind of a pretty positive press conference there, really happy to say that these things are happening in footy,” Montagna said.

“I would have liked to see him say ‘we should have won that game, we did so well for two and a half quarters, but we should have finished it, we should have nailed the end of this game, we should have won and we should have been the ones celebrating in the halls.

“He could have taken responsibility and said ‘it’s on me’ or whatever not to train or train, but that was just disappointing. They did so well, they deserved to win, but Collingwood wanted it, they played to win, Essendon couldn’t finish.

Two-time North Melbourne premier David King – who earlier in the program offloaded the team’s lack of system in the final game – added: “You get what you deserve in the football of the club. ‘AFL.’

“If you leave the door ajar like that, there are teams that are going to knock it down and Collingwood knocked it down.”