Player Watch Pick #12 (2018) - Zak Butters

[chiwigi]

Kane is absolutely spot on with this one.

It’s infuriating listening to this shit daily and we haven’t said anything.

It’s embarrassing.

If butters is leaving we’ve got a war chest of cash to spend elsewhere so we do have the ability to fight back here, even if Zak is a lost cause.

If we are letting our actions speak louder than our words, I'm ok with saying nothing.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

If it is already done, then they'd just get it done now, surely.

The only reason to wait is indecision or leaving.

Anyway, if he goes for peanuts (and with the way they are screwing us over the father son stuff), it'll be my signal to get another hobby.

If i was his manager and it's not affecting him mentally I'd tell him to wait. Every week he waits raises his profile higher, especially in Victoria and ultimately will lead to more financial opportunities.

If Zak knows he is staying and really wants success then he should just sign though so that the club can have some positivity and focus on development and he can better influence his team mates.

 

[chiwigi]

If i was his manager and it's not affecting him mentally I'd tell him to wait. Every week he waits raises his profile higher, especially in Victoria and ultimately will lead to more financial opportunities.

If Zak knows he is staying and really wants success then he should just sign though so that the club can have some positivity and focus on development and he can better influence his team mates.

I agree, that's why it was a reply to someone saying he is staying. there is zero evidence for that atm.

The only evidence is for maybe or leaving.

 

[MrMeaner]

Weve also offered at least the most cash

David Zita on fox footy has mentioned port won't get beaten on cash per year
If he leaves it isn't for money

Like what does Kane want port to do

Make content

 

[Ford Fairlane]

We've said we'll match every and any offer for him.

What more is there to do

Exactly, everything Kane wants us to say, we've said. If we keep feeding the media cycle, it just makes it more of a distraction for us.

We have said he is our player and we will match any offer. He has said he hasn't made a decision. Port have dropped a huge offer in front of him and even the media says monetarily it is as good as, if not better than, the best he's being offered elsewhere.

In the old days, if a club came after one of our players, Bob McLean would say Right, now we will talk to your best player. He did that with VFL clubs whenever they came calling for one of our stars and they would back off.

But how do you do this here when you don't know who the enemy is? It's like the asymmetrical warfare in Vietnam where a regular army fought guys jumping out of fox holes. A lot of fire and fury for no return. We don't need to waste energy on this media driven firestorm.

The Vic media is ranking Vic clubs from 1-10 on the likelihood of Zak going to that club. Are you going to chase every club like a crazy terrier yapping at the full moon?

 

[Ford Fairlane]

If Zak decided to go, we should convince Nas to come to Port and tell the club Zak chooses to go and satisfy St Kilda.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

It probably won't matter, but ...

A proposal to eliminate free agency compensation picks from the first 10 selections of the 2026 national draft is in doubt, as any change may require a change to the collective bargaining agreement rules relating to free agency.

The players’ association is in consultation with the AFL about the league’s proposal as they consider whether to support the change in the interest of competitive balance.

The talks between the two parties could determine whether Port Adelaide are offered a compensation pick inside or outside the top 10 at the end of the season if restricted free agent Zak Butters

9

Zak Butters

Age

25

Ht

181cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.3

4star

K

7.7

3star

HB

6.7

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.8

3star

D

14.7

4star

K

8.9

4star

HB

5.9

3star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.1

3star

D

17.0

5star

K

9.0

4star

HB

8.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

1.6

4star

CL

0.6

3star

decides to leave.

Expecting a free run at a top-10 pick for your club? Not so fast

A proposal to eliminate free agency compensation picks from the first 10 selections of the 2026 AFL national draft is in doubt.

www.theage.com.au

 

[KanesBurner]

H8 to say it but the wombat is right

If Port are going to fight back to every story about Butters this year there will literally be no time for anything else haha

 

[davesnothere]

It probably won't matter, but ...

Expecting a free run at a top-10 pick for your club? Not so fast

A proposal to eliminate free agency compensation picks from the first 10 selections of the 2026 AFL national draft is in doubt.

www.theage.com.au

It doesn’t matter. Possibly helps us actually nobody‘s gonna be taking top 10 picks away from us.

 

[Jonts]

Zak Butters

9

Zak Butters

Age

25

Ht

181cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.3

4star

K

7.7

3star

HB

6.7

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.8

3star

D

14.7

4star

K

8.9

4star

HB

5.9

3star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.1

3star

D

17.0

5star

K

9.0

4star

HB

8.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

1.6

4star

CL

0.6

3star

to be the first player to announce he is leaving prior to the Home and Away finishing.

 

[Addy23]

Zak Butters to be the first player to announce he is leaving prior to the Home and Away finishing.

I'd rather him announce it on Monday after the game than have the media do the talking for him

 

[Rigs]

Josh goes bang

 

[Powerade 08]

We arent going to take a compo pick for Butters

Part of it would be used as points for Cochrane

Or we have to do other trades to get it ahead of a Cochrane bid, to draft... not Cochrane or Walker

Its not a straight pick 4 or 5 or whatever.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Josh goes bang

Handled a ridiculous question very well. Starting to show a bit of edge too.

 

[Jojay]

There's a bit of a 'gotcha' type element to questioning Carr... he himself left Port to go home (albeit after we won the flag), so anything he says that contradicts that would be jumped on by the media. He's handling this well so far.

 

[240volt]

I wouldn't mind Port publicly declaring that we get to take first 10 picks in the draft. It'd be no less against the rules and ineffective than what you're asking for here, so why not?

'The trend' lol. Do you think clubs are taking unders on their uncontracted players because it's fashionable, not because the league rules force them to?

I know you’ll inform me if you think I’m wrong but I can’t see us getting true value or close to it unless her goes to a bottom club which he won’t.
The idea of teams getting the picks is going to be more difficult especially with picks at a premium with Tassie coming in.
Clubs will also know if we don’t take the offer he goes to a team like West Coast and we won’t do that.
I just don’t see it ending good

 

[Gryllis]

Josh goes bang

What a dumb question from that journo. 'Do you need to stop talking about the thing I'm now asking you about, which the last question was also about?'

Good answer.

 

[Willsy10]

I reckon Carr leaving was a bit different, we'd just won the flag after years of coming close and he was leaving to play with his brother.

No disrespect to Carry but he wasn't anywhere near the player or % of salary cap we are talking with Butters, but even still Carry's late call ended up costing us Scott Thompson.

Hopefully history doesn't repeat in a much more damaging way and we are left with all this cash and no one to spend it on, except the Aaron Shattock

Aaron Shattock

Age

45

Ht

187cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.4

2star

K

5.7

2star

HB

3.7

3star

M

2.9

3star

T

1.2

3star

No current season stats available

D

9.0

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.4

3star

T

1.4

4star

and Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh

Age

49

Ht

180cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.2

4star

K

8.4

3star

HB

6.9

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

1.8

4star

No current season stats available

D

15.2

4star

K

7.4

3star

HB

7.8

5star

M

2.4

3star

T

0.8

3star

equivalents this year.

 

[Rash]

I love how there has been zero and i mean zero talk about him potentially staying.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

I reckon Carr leaving was a bit different, we'd just won the flag after years of coming close and he was leaving to play with his brother.

No disrespect to Carry but he wasn't anywhere near the player or % of salary cap we are talking with Butters, but even still Carry's late call ended up costing us Scott Thompson.

Hopefully history doesn't repeat in a much more damaging way and we are left with all this cash and no one to spend it on, except the Aaron Shattock and Peter Walsh equivalents this year.

Carry wasn't the problem with missing out on Scott Thompson, Choco was. He hung onto the pipe dream of getting Pavlich (maybe even Schammer) as a swap and even though they both said no hung on until the last minute when we collected 3 rounds of draft picks - 11, 27 and 45, which was a pretty good return in those days.

Choco then went to talk to Thompson who said Sorry I've already agreed to join Adelaide and Choco burned the second and third rounders on Shattock and Walsh.

 

[chiwigi]

I love how there has been zero and i mean zero talk about him potentially staying.

Status quo doesn't need to be asserted.

 

[MrMeaner]

If only we could somehow harness the energy from the AFL media's content-creation cycle, we would be able to rid ourself of our reliance on oil.

 

[KanesBurner]

I know you’ll inform me if you think I’m wrong but I can’t see us getting true value or close to it unless her goes to a bottom club which he won’t.
The idea of teams getting the picks is going to be more difficult especially with picks at a premium with Tassie coming in.
Clubs will also know if we don’t take the offer he goes to a team like West Coast and we won’t do that.
I just don’t see it ending good

As we are about to enter a period of change in the AFL I think Port need to be very stern about what they do with Butters this year. Because we’ll have MG in a similar position too. And if you are weak with Butters guess what’ll happen when MG becomes a free agent….

 

[Ford Fairlane]

I expect Rutten to drive a harder deal than Chris "We can always trade a future pick in" Davies.

 

[morell]

I'm with Kane a bit here. I want us to be stronger and push back at every opportunity. He's our player for **** sake.


I'd even start targetting some of their players in the media

Half of this shit is marketing and setting that baseline.