Port Adelaide vice-captain Zak Butters has been awarded his third consecutive John Cahill Medal, given to the club\u2019s best and fairest player at AFL level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide\u2019s AFL and SANFL best and fairest event was held on Tuesday night at the Adelaide Convention Centre, to celebrate the most important contributors from the season that was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Butters was a clear winner with 134 votes, finishing 16 votes ahead of second-placed Mitch Georgiades, who enjoyed a career-best season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zak Butters polled 134 votes to take out the top honour. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Captain Connor Rozee polled in third place (117 votes), while Joe Richards (84 votes) and Aliir Aliir (73 votes) rounded out the top five.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2025, Butters averaged 28 disposals, 12.5 contested possessions, five tackles and five inside-50s from 19 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On nine occasions he collected 30+ disposals, including season-highs of 38 touches against West Coast and 35 against Gold Coast.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zak Butters’ outstanding 2025 has earned him a third consecutive John Cahill Medal. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
His consistent work-rate and competitive mindset make the 24-year-old one of the toughest and most impactful players in the league, while his courage and smart decision-making continue to make him stand out from the pack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I’ve still got a lot of growth,\u201d Butters said upon accepting his award.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething I’m still working on is my fitness and running and my clearance game. I\u2019m trying to work with Connor and Pep and Drewy and a few of the other boys and hopefully (also) help some of these younger boys become better players and better people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to everyone for being here tonight \u2013 members fans, family, friends and players, past and present. From the team aspect, this year didn\u2019t go to plan and it shatters me to not be playing this time of year. But there is also a lot of growth in the group from the young boys.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo my teammates, I couldn\u2019t do it without you. The boys on the stage (Rozee and Georgiades), congratulations as well. Some of my best mates at the football club.<\/p>\n
Butters went on to thank coaches Josh Carr, Chad Cornes, Ken Hinkley, and Cam Sutcliffe, as well as his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum and nanna are in the room tonight, and my old boy back home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum, thank you for everything, I think you’ve come to every game this year. The support you\u2019ve given me\u2026I couldn\u2019t do it without you. And Nan texts me after every game saying I’m the best player ever, even when I had 10 in the game against Geelong!\u201d<\/p>\n
Willem Drew took home his third consecutive Fos Williams Medal for best team man, which is a player-voted accolade.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hard-working midfielder is the ultimate team man, who continues to earn the respect of coaches and teammates with his team-first mentality.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
First-year player Christian Moraes claimed the Gavin Wanganeen Medal, awarded to the best player under 21, and key defender Esava Ratugolea was recognised with the Coaches\u2019 Award for the most improved player in 2025.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The John McCarthy Medal for work in the community went to Willie Rioli for his exceptional commitment to Power Community Ltd. and broader initiatives supporting First Nations communities.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the past year, Rioli has facilitated workshops across multiple programs, including the Santos Aboriginal Power Cup, various defence initiatives, and the Power to End Violence Against Women program.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier in the evening, midfielder Jack Watkins was named the club\u2019s SANFL Best and Fairest, taking home his first A.R. McLean Medal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
John Cahill Medal leader board\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
1.\u202fZak Butters – 134\u00a0
2. Mitch Georgiades – 118\u00a0
3.\u202fConnor Rozee – 117\u00a0
4. Joe Richards – 84\u202f\u00a0
5. Aliir Aliir – 73 \u202f\u00a0
6. Miles Bergman – 67\u00a0
7. Darcy Byrne-Jones – 64\u00a0
8. Lachie Jones – 58\u00a0
9. Esava Ratugolea – 57\u00a0
=10. Jason Horne-Francis – 56\u00a0
=10. Ollie Wines – 56\u00a0<\/p>\n
AFL award winners\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
John Cahill Medal (best & fairest)\u202f\u00a0
Zak Butters\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
John Cahill Medal runner-up\u202f\u00a0
Mitch Georgiades\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bruce Weber Memorial Award (third place best & fairest)\u202f\u00a0
Connor Rozee\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fos Williams Medal (best team man – as voted by the players)\u202f\u202f\u00a0
Willem Drew\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leading Goalkicker\u00a0
Mitch Georgiades (58 goals)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gavin Wanganeen Award (best player under 21)\u202f\u202f\u00a0
Christian Moraes\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coaches\u2019 Award (most improved)\u202f\u202f\u00a0
Esava Ratugolea\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
John McCarthy Award (for community service)\u202f\u202f\u00a0
Willie Rioli<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide vice-captain Zak Butters has been awarded his third consecutive John Cahill Medal, given to the club\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-114066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}