{"id":610349,"date":"2026-04-16T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610349\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T08:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:49:11","slug":"afl-tribunal-process-too-adversarial-port-adelaide-chief-executive-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610349\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Tribunal process ‘too adversarial’, Port Adelaide chief executive says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide’s chief executive has slammed the AFL Tribunal process as “too legalistic” and “too adversarial”.<\/p>\n

The club has notified the league it will appeal the tribunal’s decision against Zak Butters, who was found guilty for using abusive and insulting language towards an umpire after a free kick was awarded to St Kilda in Port’s 14-point loss on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Butters and field umpire Nick Foot disputed what was said but the tribunal ultimately sided with Foot<\/a> and handed the midfielder a $1,500 fine.<\/p>\n

Today Port chief executive Matthew Richardson called for a reform of the tribunal process.<\/p>\n

“This week we put a player, an umpire and an official in a situation which should have been handled so much better,” he said.<\/p>\n

“No-one’s committed murder here \u2014 it’s a game of footy.<\/p>\n

“Can we find a process that actually doesn’t drag them through what they’ve been through this week? Because ultimately all of them are the victims of what happened this week.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Zak Butters said he was disappointed with the AFL Tribunal’s findings, which were handed down on Tuesday. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)<\/p>\n

Mr Richardson stressed that the club’s position was not about the outcome but the tribunal process.<\/p>\n

“Port Adelaide’s position is straightforward: the tribunal’s process needs to be reformed,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is too legalistic, it’s too adversarial and it places people under a level of scrutiny and stress that is disproportionate to the nature of the incidents it is designed to resolve.”<\/p>\n

“Let’s actually get together and determine a process that one, supports our people, but two, we understand that we’re in a game that’s always going to be [involving] conflict \u2026 but does it need to be as legalistic as what it is at the moment? Can we resolve the differences that are in the game in a different way?”<\/p>\n

An appeal hearing has been scheduled for 5pm AEST on Monday. Mr Richardson did not reveal the club’s grounds of appeal.<\/p>\n

AFL’s gamble with conflict of interest concerns didn’t pay off<\/a><\/p>\n

The AFL gambled that concerns over a conflict of interest with one of its umpires wouldn’t be an issue, but that call has come back to bite them \u2014 and it’s not the umpire’s fault.<\/p>\n

Port was not the only club that questioned the tribunal’s process.<\/p>\n

When asked about the tribunal’s findings this week, against Butters and Lance Collard, who was banned for using a homophobic slur during a VFL game, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon today said the decisions weighed heavily on players<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It has been lit up, hasn’t it? Like it’s a firestorm and the AFL is in the middle of it and the processes are in the middle of it,” Lyon told reporters in Adelaide on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge, speaking broadly about the tribunal, urged the use of “common sense”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide’s chief executive has slammed the AFL Tribunal process as “too legalistic” and “too adversarial”. The club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[294136,638,17929,62558,1110,64,63,55,639,32325,262867,41565,68973,294635,239942,87235,85,28390,1122,70425,23510],"class_list":{"0":"post-610349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-abusive-language","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-afl-tribunal","11":"tag-analyst","12":"tag-appeal","13":"tag-au","14":"tag-australia","15":"tag-australian-football-league","16":"tag-australianfootballleague","17":"tag-conflict-of-interest","18":"tag-gather-round","19":"tag-matthew-richardson","20":"tag-mitch-owens","21":"tag-nick-foot","22":"tag-ollie-wines","23":"tag-pafc","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-sportsbet","26":"tag-st-kilda","27":"tag-umpire","28":"tag-zak-butters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610349","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=610349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}