{"id":163908,"date":"2025-09-23T16:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T16:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/163908\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T16:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T16:44:11","slug":"zak-butters-spotted-talking-to-rival-club-on-brownlow-night-amid-trade-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/163908\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Butters spotted talking to rival club on Brownlow night amid trade speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even if you’re not a fan of the Brownlow count, there’s still one reason to keep an ear open for the event: trade talk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amid the fallout of Matt Rowell’s stunning Brownlow win<\/a>, and Zach Merrett speaking to the media<\/a> yet not really saying much of anything, there was one little nugget that nearly fell through the cracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s been widely speculated that Port Adelaide<\/a> star Zak Butters could pursue a move to Victoria as soon as next year, if not earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Hawthorn<\/a> have, of course, registered some level of interest in the Power’s vice-captain, the Western Bulldogs<\/a> are also expected to be at the front of the queue if and when he does explore his options, and a conversation on Brownlow night, spotted by multiple observers, may just add fuel to the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0The Zak Butters dilemma facing new Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking on\u00a0The Sounding Board\u00a0podcast, respected journalist Damian Barrett made note of Butters interacting with the Western Bulldogs’ table.<\/p>\n

“I did see Zak Butters in deep conversation for a good, let’s go few minutes, with the Dogs,” he said in the aftermath of Brownlow night.<\/p>\n

“They seemed to be comfortable in each other’s company… don’t think it was the first time they’ve spoken about a future together.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mitch Cleary added further detail via the\u00a0Tradies\u00a0podcast.<\/p>\n

“Zak Butters, at one stage, was the last person standing at the Western Bulldogs’ table, talking to (Tom) Liberatore over Bont’s (Marcus Bontempelli) shoulder,” Cleary told.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Butters holds a contract with Port Adelaide until the end of 2026, after a signing a two-year extension in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the Power’s best player, he would be a massive loss for the club, who are already in a position of transition with Josh Carr set for his first season as senior coach in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Power are committed to keep Butters at the club, with\u00a0AFL.com.au’s\u00a0Cal Twomey reporting in May<\/a> that they had offered him “the biggest deal in AFL history.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even if you’re not a fan of the Brownlow count, there’s still one reason to keep an ear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-163908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163908","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=163908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}