Toast Zak Butters appreciation thread

chickentendies

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BeanCoiNFT Investor
Mar 26, 2017
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I think the King brothers would still go before him because talented KPFs are difficult to find. Walsh maybe. So I'd put Zak at pick 3 or 4 if the draft was done again.

On potential the King brothers, Rozee, Rankine, Rowell are all players who I feel could definitely be ranked above Butters on potential and there's a good chance that 2 to 3 of these players may actually end up with better careers than Butters.
Key issues:
1) Key forwards can look incredible and still fall to s**t. Remember Hogan? Butcher (Hinkley's fault never 4get)? Any Carlton key forward in the past 20 years that didn't leave? Patton? It's a touch unfair on KPF's in general but * there's so much risk involved.

2) Rozee, Rankine and Rowell have all unfairly had injury woes. This is harsh: but not being able to get on the park does actually deteriorate your quality as a player, even though its often something out of their control. Rowell on paper looks incredible, but so far his contributions to the Suns on field success has been minimal.

On output so far, Butters. The odds of future Butters being elite is high, because he is currently elite. I'll take certainty over potential any day of the week - but there is also probably a good reason I'm not a list manager.
 

John Who

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Apr 16, 2017
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His rise as an AFL player has been meteoric since being drafted.
Pound for pound, possibly the toughest current AFL player.
Touch for touch, possibly the most efficient AFL player.

If he can keep at the trajectory, no reason why he can't be a top-5 AFL player in 2-3 years time. Has the makings of a Brownlow potential too. Pure footy blood!
 

Tibbs

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AFL Port Adelaide v Essendon: Port Adelaide young gun Zak Butters pulls down Bombers’ pants
There’s some big names from the 2018 ‘Super Draft’ who are putting their mark on the game. But Port Adelaide just might have found an absolute jet with the No. 12 pick.

Ever since the crop of talented youngsters from the 2018 “Super Draft” started to make their mark in the league almost immediately, there has been significant debate about who is the best out of the lot. Should Sam Walsh have gone at No. 1? not according to Kane Cornes. What about the King twins Max and Ben? The brothers with almost God-given attributes have a lot of fans.

Connor Rozee after he finished his debut campaign as the Power’s leading goalkicker got some mentions. Even Izak Rankine after he started his AFL career for last year as a human highlight reel, while the Western Bulldogs Bailey Smith continues to mount a case given his sensational first two years in Luke Beveridge’s side, so much that Mick Malthouse said on the weekend he isn’t far off becoming the AFL’s premier on-baller. But what about Butters even though the No. 12 pick of that Draft was part of the All-Australian 40-man squad in 2020?

None, zilch.

Before Saturday’s game against Essendon the best Butters had produced in terms of possessions in a game was 24. In and around the midfield more, he lined up at the first centre bounce of the day for the Power, the 20-year-old had an absolute field day against the Bombers finishing with 36 disposals, six tackles and six clearances.

The Power’s decision to make some risky moves to bring in Rozee at No. 5, Butters at No. 12 and Duursma at No. 18 has been a masterstroke move by Port’s list management and recruiters. Getting Butters at No. 12 seems like an almighty steal with every passing game. Rozee’s debut season got the plaudits, and rightly so given how impressive he was, and Duursma is and will continue to be a good player for the Power.

But it is arguably Butters who is the pick of the bunch for the Power now. “I think he (Butters) has gone past him (Rozee) at this stage of their careers,” St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt said on Fox Footy. “He is a really complete player and there is a level of toughness there.”

That toughness was right on show when Butters rattled the bones of Essendon’s Andy McGrath when the Bomber young gun got a hospital handpass. And as we saw in 2020, Butters is still deadly when he goes forward — finishing with a goal and assist.

“I’m not sure there is a thing that Zak Butters can’t do,” Adelaide great and board member Mark Ricciuto said. “He is the complete player at the moment and if he can go into the midfield and take it to another level which it looks like he can do he will be a star of the competition if he is not one already. He’s good in the air, good on the ground, he tackles well, he’s tough, he’s fast, he’s fit and he’s young.”

So how far can Butters go in the game?

Port coach Ken Hinkley says as long as Butters works hard he can continue to get better, a statement that should have Power fans salivating. “He is like all of our young players, he’s a talented young player who has a lot in front of him and a lot of growth to come,” he said. “Where he goes that is the challenge for Zak, Zak like a lot of young players he is really driven and he can achieve anything that he wants to if he really challenges himself. And I know the way he prepares he will give himself every opportunity.”

More .......

 

Tibbs

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Sep 9, 2013
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And what about that tongue!!!
1616905667929.png


1616905706294.png


1616905727846.png


And that is just three snaps in one game!
 

Marat

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Sep 13, 2017
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Zak is a creative genius - a genius I tell you! That play in the semi last year where he took out two larger Geelong players in the contest billiard style and then got the handball off for the run in goal was not a one off - it’s something he is starting to bring week in week out. He opens up the game around him with a vision that is unmatched. And he must have gone hungry as a young fella, because nothing goes to waste - every touch counts. He is a tough as they come - I’m picturing him in about 3 or 4 years when he’s added size and strength running amok lethal Leigh style. A lot to look forward to!
 

Tibbs

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Some of the stuff he does in this U18 highlights package we have seen replicated in AFL.


He really is the complete package. You see many good young players with one, two, or even three strengths that go on to be very good AFL footballers. But as highlighted here by some posters, Zac seems to have them all .... In spades!

As you say, even in his under-18 highlights you can clearly see what he is now doing game after game in the AFL. To have that split-second decision-making ability, vision, exquisite skills, ferocious ferret-like attack on the ball and ball carrier, along with such sweet execution ... [No words]

Robbie Gray ... you are a legend!
 

Pickett4GOAT

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May 27, 2020
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On potential the King brothers, Rozee, Rankine, Rowell are all players who I feel could definitely be ranked above Butters on potential and there's a good chance that 2 to 3 of these players may actually end up with better careers than Butters.
Key issues:
1) Key forwards can look incredible and still fall to sh*t. Remember Hogan? Butcher (Hinkley's fault never 4get)? Any Carlton key forward in the past 20 years that didn't leave? Patton? It's a touch unfair on KPF's in general but fu** there's so much risk involved.

2) Rozee, Rankine and Rowell have all unfairly had injury woes. This is harsh: but not being able to get on the park does actually deteriorate your quality as a player, even though its often something out of their control. Rowell on paper looks incredible, but so far his contributions to the Suns on field success has been minimal.

On output so far, Butters. The odds of future Butters being elite is high, because he is currently elite. I'll take certainty over potential any day of the week - but there is also probably a good reason I'm not a list manager.
The beauty of Butters is the player he is becoming and how hard it is to find that kind of player- a playmaker. There aren't many AFL midfielders who dictate the tempo and direction of attacks. As good as Dangerfield and Fyfe are, there are plenty of good young stoppage players (Simpkin, Walsh, Andersen, Caldwell, Smith). Apart from Dusty who does it as a floating half forward, I can't think of too many other playmakers since Sam Mitchell.
 

El_Scorcho

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Could be literally anything in this game.

His early signs were genius in that sort of, 8-touches-but-they-were-all-vital sort of way.

But now he's developed a great tank and can use his freakish vision and reading of the play to find the ball again and again and again.

Perfect attitude to getting the best out of himself and also he's massive for team spirit.

Haven't been this excited about a player since AA Wingard.
 
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