{"id":621756,"date":"2026-04-21T16:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621756\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:43:15","slug":"zak-butters-the-most-fined-afl-player-ever-clocks-over-51000-tribunal-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621756\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Butters the most fined AFL player ever; clocks over $51,000; tribunal drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zak Butters<\/a> may have had his $1,500 fine for umpire abuse overturned at the tribunal<\/a> on Monday night, but a separate fine from round six has undone those savings, as he continues to add to his lead as the league’s most fined player of all-time.<\/p>\n

He was slapped with a $1,000 penalty in round six for striking Hawthorn forward Sam Butler, taking his career fine total to $51,125. The 23rd charge of his career.<\/p>\n

The Port Adelaide<\/a> star is, clearly, a bit of a hot-head. An aggressive midfielder who plays with his heart on his sleeve and attacks the contest hard. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dragons rip ‘fabricated’ report as shock Young rift revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Zak<\/p>\n

Zak Butters’ open palm strike to Sam Butler.\u00a0Twitter<\/p>\n

That white-line fever boiled over when he was reported for umpire abuse by umpire Nick Foot<\/a>. While the penalty was ultimately dismissed, it was due to a legal technicality and not because his name was cleared for the indiscretion.<\/p>\n

Discounting that sanction, Butters has separately been fined twice this season already. The aforementioned incident with Butler, and $1,500 for engaging in a melee in round three, which officially ticked him over the $50,000 marker.<\/p>\n

One of the game’s best midfielders, he has won three straight Port Adelaide best and fairest awards and was crowned the AFL Coaches Association player of the year in 2023.<\/p>\n

Racking up over $51,000 in fines from just 23 offences is a significant ‘feat’. GWS captain Toby Greene<\/a> sits just behind him with $48,850, but has been fined 31 times.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Zak Butters of the Power and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera of the Saints wrestle.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Butters was fined $4,125 in just one game early in the 2025 season for instigating a melee and then engaging in a separate scuffle.<\/p>\n

In particular, 2024 was a rough year for him. He was fined $1,875 for engaging in a melee against Hawthorn, $6,250 for an off-the-ball bump (also against Hawthorn), $6,250 for an off-the-ball strike on Brisbane’s Jarrod Berry, $5,000 for a bump on Richmond’s James Trezise and then $1,875 for careless contact with an umpire.<\/p>\n

In total, 2024 set him back a whopping $21,250.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, while he has become the only player in V\/AFL history to accumulate $50,000 worth of fines, the Power midfielder has actually only been suspended and missed weeks for two incidents in his career.<\/p>\n

That was a two-game ban for a rough conduct bump against North Melbourne in 2020, and a one-game ban for a bump on GWS star Tom Green in 2024.<\/p>\n

He has copped it hard in the hip pocket, but has only missed three career games through suspension.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tempers flare between Zak Butters of the Power and Liam Baker of the Eagles in 2026.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Butters will certainly make up for the missing cash with his next contract.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old is out of contract at the end of the 2026 season and is viewed as potentially the game’s biggest ever free agent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has been strongly linked with a move home to Victoria, with effectively every team putting their hand up to try and win his services.<\/p>\n

Butters could command offers as high as $2m per season. Port Adelaide has already made clear that they will match any offer put to them by a rival club, given he is a restricted free agent.<\/p>\n

This would force his team of choice to then put together a trade<\/a> with the Power to get the deal done. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, teams can’t offer to pay future fines on his behalf. <\/p>\n

At just 25, Butters still has a long career ahead of him to add to the $51,000 tally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zak Butters may have had his $1,500 fine for umpire abuse overturned at the tribunal on Monday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-621756","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621756","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=621756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}