Essendon assistant Ben Rutten will replace John Worsfold as the Bombers head coach in 2021 in a historic succession plan at the AFL club.

Rutten was a key member of Damien Hardwick’s coaching staff at Richmond which delivered the Tigers a breakthrough premiership in 2017.

He joined Essendon as defence and key position coach for the 2019 campaign.

With Fremantle and Adelaide yet to fill their head coaching vacancies for 2020, the Bombers moved decisively to shore up their coaching set-up.

Worsfold will see out the final season of his Essendon contract in 2020 – his fifth at the helm.

He led the Bombers to the 2017 and 2019 finals, both of which resulted in heavy elimination-final defeats.

Worsfold, Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell and president Lindsay Tanner will front a media conference at 1.15pm AEST at The Hangar.

Before moving into coaching, Rutten played 229 games for the Crows as an uncompromising fullback.

Former club great Tim Watson said there needed to be full buy-in from Worsfold for the succession plan to work.

Citing the example of Collingwood’s difficult handover from Mick Malthouse to Nathan Buckley, Watson said a failed handover would be “disastrous” for the Bombers.

“I think it would be just foolhardy of any football club to embark upon something like that if you don’t have everybody on the same page,” he told the Seven Network’s Talking Footy.

“If that wasn’t the case, this could be disastrous. We know that there was a succession plan at Collingwood where they apparently agreed and then they disagreed and they moved further and further apart.

“The disruption that can be caused if everybody isn’t in agreement with this is disastrous for a footy club.”

Worsfold, 50, coached West Coast to the 2006 premiership.