New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI haven\u2019t had any calls about Zak. It\u2019s pretty clear, Zak is happy and 100 per cent committed to the club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s obviously a super important and it\u2019s important for our members and supporters, because there\u2019s been a bit of noise about Zak externally, our sole focus is to hopefully get Zak to recommit to the club for a long period. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want Zak to be at the club for the next 10 years, that will be our sole focus \u2026 a super important player for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zak Butters of the Power is chased by Clay Hall of the Eagles. Picture: James Elsby\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Cripps said Butters had \u201cnever broached the idea of being traded\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had ongoing discussions with Zak and his management group … as we do with all our players, in particular our interstate players, over the journey,\u201d the Port list boss added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to have those discussions with those players, but as I said, Zak is 100 per cent committed and happy at the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cripps said there was \u201cno need\u201d to even entertain a trade for Butters ahead of his free agency year, with Western Bulldogs, Geelong and Hawthorn among the clubs circling, as he \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to go anywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cZak\u2019s sole focus now is having a good break, which he needs, and attacking the pre-season,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot of change sin our footy department, obviously Josh Carr coming in as senior coach and we\u2019ve brought in four really experienced coaches underneath and around Josh. <\/p>\n
\u201cZak and all of our players will focus on building that connection with those coaches and hopefully bouncing back and having a better season next year. Because this year was really disappointing and well below our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voss launches honest and raw BnF speech | 03:36<\/p>\n
Western Bulldogs footy boss Sam Power said Butters, who\u2019s originally from Melbourne’s western suburbs and grew up a Dogs fan, was a player they\u2019d paid \u201cextra interest\u201d towards across his career. <\/p>\n
\u201cClearly he\u2019s an unbelievable player … you always take an interest definitely from growing up in the western suburbs in Darley,\u201d Power said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Zak had a wish to return to Victoria I think he\u2019d have every Victorian club looking at that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at this stage he\u2019s contracted and we haven\u2019t heard anything different to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Draper leaves Essendon for Lions | 00:20<\/p>\n
Cats list boss Andrew Mackie confirmed the club was \u201ckeeping really close tabs\u201d on Butters, but also acknowledged his contract status.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a gun. We\u2019d love him (but) so would 17 other clubs, including Port Adelaide,\u201d Mackie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo as far as we\u2019re concerned he\u2019s a contracted player, and we haven\u2019t spent too much time on it, other than admiring his football from where we sit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawks list guru Mark McKenzie said Hawthorn would also be in the market for Butters if he were available.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a player of interest for every club at this point in time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think it\u2019s been strong for where that sits with Zak from Port Adelaide\u2019s point of view. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would\u2019ve thought everyone has asked the question at some stage … you obviously speak to managers. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s contracted with Port and that\u2019s where he is at this point in time and we\u2019ll see how that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Butters last month cemented his place as a Port Adelaide great, claiming a third consecutive best and fairest award.<\/p>\n
The vice-captain took out the John Cahill Medal for a third straight year, polling 134 votes to finish 16 votes ahead of much-improved <\/p>\n
forward Mitch Georgiades (118) and captain Connor Rozee (117).<\/p>\n
Butters, who averaged 28 disposals in 2025, joined Warren Tredrea (four), Kane Cornes (four) and Robbie Gray (three) as the only Power players to win at least three club champion awards in the AFL era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide list boss Jason Cripps says Zak Butters will \u201c100 per cent\u201d be at the club next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,684,23515,122393,122392,54883,2105,122394,27709,675,29963,25890,677,6082,117436,11244,22401,27241,1124,85,7805,11236,660,117438,7067,698,23510],"class_list":["post-193893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-cotton","tag-connor-rozee","tag-contract-goal","tag-emphatic-response","tag-footy-department","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-jason-cripps","tag-josh-carr","tag-kane-cornes","tag-list-boss","tag-mitch-georgiades","tag-oceania","tag-port-adelaide","tag-robbie-gray","tag-sam-draper","tag-senior-coach","tag-sole-focus","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-star-midfielder","tag-trade-news","tag-victoria","tag-warren-tredrea","tag-west-coast-eagles","tag-western-bulldogs","tag-zak-butters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193893","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=193893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}