Footy fans and experts blow up over Essendon star BLANKING Ben Rutten – but is all as it seems?

Former premiership winner turned AFL analyst Kane Cornes has come under fire for using selective footage to make Essendon coach Ben Rutten look bad.

Cornes ran a segment from the final quarter of the Essendon versus North Melbourne match from round 20 on Fox Footy.

In the scenes, Bombers star Nick Hind comes from the field and Rutten asks him to come and sit next to him. Hind initially refuses, before eventually sitting next to his coach but completely blanking him as Rutten tries to give him feedback.

Rutten survived the axe at Essendon for their woeful season this week, but Cornes used the footage to show that the players had ‘clearly checked out’.

‘You ask whether the players have checked out, this is round 20,’ he said.

‘I’m not sure I’ve seen vision of a player treat a coach like this.

‘He doesn’t want to sit next to Ben Rutten, but Ben Rutten says “no, sit here”.

Essendon’s Nick Hind (pictured above) was pulled from the field against North Melbourne after being head slammed and then giving away a free kick for dissent. He then ignored his coach

‘He’s trying to give him some feedback, some positive reinforcement and the disengagement of Nick Hind on the interchange bench here, he can’t even look at him.

‘So the players have clearly checked out and their on-field actions are displaying that.’

However, what the footage shown on Fox Footy does not include is what happened just before Hind came from the field.

Hind had been head-slammed heavily into the turf and was very slow to his feet as a result. While he was trying to regain his composure, the umpire signalled a free kick to North Melbourne.

A stunned Hind could be seen saying, ‘What for?’ and was then removed from the field by Rutten.

It was a series of events that would have made any player disgruntled and a number of footy fans slammed Cornes for taking his reaction to Rutten out of context.

‘So deceiving. That footage is from North game a few weeks ago after hind gifted a goal for dissent after he had his head slammed into the turf with no free,’ one fan replied. 

‘[Kane Cornes] is the new member to the selective vision club. If this was played 10 seconds earlier you’d see hind give away a free kick for dissent therefore getting dragged. I’d be embarrassed to look at the coach too after that. Don’t kick a man while he’s down mate,’ tweeted another.

‘Alternately he could be a little concussed and a little pissed after being slung to the ground head first and arms pinned… and the free go against him for [dissent]. But you know its BS cause its coming out of Cornes’ mouth,’ fired back another.

Rutten has been under enormous pressure this season as the Bombers have underperformed once again and the long finals drought continues for the beleaguered club

However, some fans said that context was irrelevant and slammed Hind for his behaviour toward his coach. 

‘I don’t think context matters.. it’s poor and disrespectful from Hind,’ one fan replied.

‘It’s unwatchable. The immaturity shown by this player may be something he should address during the off season,’ said another.

‘I wouldn’t put up with that from my Under 12s. Appalling. He should get an absolute rocket,’ fumed yet another.