A Hall of Fame Legend has made an eye-opening statement about clubs looking to acquire Zak Butters this year.

Plus, why there’s “growing hope” of an AFL change of heart regarding looming draft changes. READ ON IN AFL DAILY.

Watch every match of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

Hall of Fame Legend Leigh Matthews doesn’t believe clubs such as Geelong and the Western Bulldogs can afford to pay Zak Butters $2 million or more and remain in premiership contention.

The Cats and Dogs are thought to be the leading candidates to secure top free agent Butters’ services at the end of this season.

But Matthews, speaking on Fox Footy’s On the Couch, believes top-class players like Butters, despite their immense value on the market, “have got to take less to keep a good team together”.

“Thought occurred to me — you guys (Jack Riewoldt and Jordan Lewis) both played in premiership eras, and to keep an era together, I don’t think a Geelong or Bulldogs … I don’t know whether those kinds of clubs can invest a couple million dollars in any player,” he said on Fox Footy.

“(The idea of) worth is supply and demand; it’s only worth what someone’s prepared to offer you … all I’m saying is, from Geelong and the Bulldogs’ point of view, they’ve got good groups and good squads together.

“Marcus Bontempelli — you couldn’t pay him $1.3 million and bring in Butters at $2 million, could you? … keeping teams together, you know, you’ve got to take less to keep a good team together.”

Lewis, a four-time premiership player, explained that players from his and Riewoldt’s eras of flag success would have “strong opinions one way”.

“And that is against paying someone 1, 1.5, 2 million dollars, to then sacrifice a little bit of money to get them in,” he said.

Riewoldt asked Lewis if that was “on the club (offering the deal) or on Butters”.

“It depends what he wants. I mean, there’s evidence out there that suggests that if you take a little bit less to get success, you then might further your career in anything you do post-football,” Lewis said.

“But that’s the challenge. And I think some clubs, historically, have held a hard line, and I think it’s worked.”

If Butters decides to leave Port Adelaide at year’s end, not only will the acquiring club have to fork out a pretty penny to woo him over, but it’ll also need to arrange a high-priced trade as the Power will almost certainly match a contending offer for the restricted free agent.

‘Neither of them are backing down’ Lyon | 06:27

WHY THERE’S ‘GROWING HOPE’ OF AFL CHANGE OF HEART

There’s reportedly “growing hope” from clubs that the AFL could “water down” on its proposed draft changes.

The big tweak widely expected to be introduced this year was that clubs would only be allowed to match rival bids with a maximum of two picks — and given the ranging values attached to picks, they’d be giving up premium selections.

It’d mean that unlike Gold Coast and Brisbane have done most expertly in recent years, clubs would not be able to use a raft of less-valuable draft selections to meet the points total required to match.

But with the draft in November and six rounds of this season already in the books, the AFL has still yet to finalise its changes, causing angst in clubland.

And Nine’s Damian Barrett reports that after a “last-ditch” Port Adelaide plea, there’s some “hope” from clubs about a change of heart from the league.

“They (the Power) seized the opportunity of having all the AFL heavies in their town over the weekend (in Gather Round),” Barrett began on Nine’s Footy Classified.

“Whereby chairman David Koch and chief executive officer Matthew Richardson made sure to get well and truly in front of the AFL Commission chairman Craig Drummond and the AFL CEO Andrew Dillon, and others, to have a last-ditch bid to have the AFL delay the mooted changes to the national draft, which would ultimately see them have to pay a whole lot more draft currency for upcoming father-son players.

“They’ve had this last-ditch pitch, and I think the AFL has listened; they’ve listened to Carlton and Essendon as well in this space — they’ve listened to the clubs.

“But the expectation was that it was going to be introduced for the 2026 period, but we are now mid-April … and the AFL still hasn’t articulated exactly how it looks.

“And I think there’s a growing hope, at least from some of these clubs that are mostly adversely affected, potentially that they will water down ever so slightly.”

Port Adelaide is among the clubs most hoping things can stay the same for a little bit longer, as it has top club-tied Next Generation Academy prospect Dougie Cochrane poised to come to the club this year, as well as Zemes Pilot (NGA-tied), Louis Salopek (father-son) and Tevita Rodan (father-son) next year.

Carlton, meanwhile, will be looking to bring in likely top-five prospect Cody Walker as a father-son pick, while Essendon has father-son gun Koby Bewick on the cards for 2027.