Cloke topped the League in contested marks heading into the match, justifying his reputation as the game's most damaging target.
Rutten said he had one main aim before the opening bounce and Cloke's failure to take a single contested grab meant that, by the final siren, 'Truck' Rutten had easily won their duel.
"He's a big strong man, I think he's leading the competition in contested marks, so I suppose I wanted to try and stop him marking the footy." He said.
"He's a huge man and he's a fantastic player."
Cloke v Rutten shaped as a possible game-defining matchup on Saturday night, with one of the AFL's biggest forwards going head-to-head with one of its biggest defenders.
But Cloke had a night to forget.
He was smothered by Rutten and, by half-time, the soon-to-be out-of-contract Magpie was on track to record his worst output since round 16, 2005 when he managed just one disposal in his 12th career game.
In the end he finished with four disposals, his worst return since the 2010 AFL Grand Final replay, and was kept goalless for the first time this year.
Rutten said he was helped by the fact he was able to remain on Cloke for much of the game.
"Every opponent 's different, you've got to target different things," the former All Australian full-back said.
"Tonight was a pretty narrow focus for me, in terms of only having one opponent.
"[I targeted] one-on-one contests … try and get physical with him and stop him marking the ball."
Despite Cloke's struggles to impact on the game directly, coach Nathan Buckley praised the forward's work off the ball, claiming he covered 16kms over the match.
Having undergone foot surgery in February, Rutten is only just beginning to hit full fitness and admitted Cloke ran him around.
"He works really hard, across the ground and up and back - his work rate's as good as anyone's," he said.
"I'm still confident in the way I'm preparing, I'm feeling a lot better now after I didn't do much of a pre-season.
"With the first half of the year in terms of games under the belt I'm feeling I'm moving around a bit better."
Harry Thring covers news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter:@AFL_Harry.
