![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Foot alleged Butters said to him \u201chow much are they paying you?\u201d after a contentious free kick was awarded to St Kilda, with Foot taking that as a suggestion he was being paid by the Saints and a shot at his integrity.<\/p>\n
Butters insisted, both post-game on Sunday and under cross-examination on Tuesday night he\u2019d said \u201csurely that\u2019s not a free kick\u201d, with his case backed up by nearby teammate Wines.<\/p>\n
Razor reacts to Butters fine | 03:39<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide chair David Koch on Wednesday morning said he\u2019s \u201cpretty certain\u201d the club would appeal the decision to uphold Butters\u2019 umpire abuse fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will get their findings this morning and work out whether to appeal, I\u2019m pretty certain we will,\u201d Koch told FIVEaa.<\/p>\n
\u201cZak is a competitor but he\u2019s one of the nicest blokes you could ever meet,\u201d Koch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s incredibly angry with the outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe quite rightly believes he\u2019s been dubbed a liar in all this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bloke has enormous pride and integrity of his values.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis family, his mum and dad, are equally as devastated and angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, AFLPA chief executive James Gallagher said his organisation was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d by the tribunal outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cA misunderstanding about what was said on field should have been resolved in the aftermath of the match, not referred to the Tribunal,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tribunal determining not to accept all of the evidence consistent with Zak\u2019s version of events, including testimony of Zak\u2019s teammate Ollie Wines, nor have sufficient doubt when upholding a charge is deeply concerning.<\/p>\n
‘I know what I said and what I didn’t!’ | 00:40<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the off-season, we made it clear to the AFL that we would closely monitor the Tribunal\u2019s decisions during 2026 given concerns raised by players in recent seasons. It is important that all participants in the game, but most importantly the players, have confidence in the disciplinary system to which they\u2019re subjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve offered our full support to Zak and Port Adelaide in exploring their options to appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koch shared Gallagher\u2019s viewpoint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put up a witness from the league\u2019s best and fairest, but the decision took none of that into account and seemed to focus on semantics,\u201d Koch said.<\/p>\n
Butters provided a short statement after the finding outside Alberton Oval on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m clearly disappointed with the result tonight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand by knowing what I said and what I didn\u2019t say, especially what I didn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to thank the club for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n
MORE TO COME<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL Players\u2019 Association says the dismissal of Zak Butters and Ollie Wines\u2019 tribunal evidence is \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,689,3423,99453,2105,43,295534,104296,7198,44,677,6082,60969,1124,1122,26889,41,39,42,40,295533,295532,87241,91426,660,23510],"class_list":{"0":"post-607558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","10":"tag-ben-waterworth","11":"tag-bold-statement","12":"tag-getty-images-inc","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-james-b-gallagher","15":"tag-metre-penalty","16":"tag-michael-willson","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-oceania","19":"tag-port-adelaide","20":"tag-ray-chamberlain","21":"tag-south-australia","22":"tag-st-kilda","23":"tag-st-kilda-saints","24":"tag-top-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topnews","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-tribunal-evidence","29":"tag-tribunal-outcome","30":"tag-umpire-abuse","31":"tag-verbal-abuse","32":"tag-victoria","33":"tag-zak-butters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607558","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=607558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}