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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Amid the headlines and drama that enveloped his AFL tribunal case involving umpire Nick Foot last month, Zak Butters insisted his primary focus remained on field.<\/p>\n \u201cI keep it pretty clear to myself … keep the off-field stuff to the off-field and worry about my performance foremost and how I control that,\u201d Butters said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m paid to do. A lot of my time and energy goes into training, getting better as a player, making my teammates better, and being a good leader as well. So I\u2019d like to say I fill my cup up with most of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n That cup is full to the brim this season, to the point Butters could become the first man to be crowned the Brownlow medallist, then immediately join another club.<\/p>\n However, as AFL historian Swamp points out, there is an historic quirk to that stat. Hawthorn\u2019s Col Austen \u2013 one of the club\u2019s first stars \u2013 won the league\u2019s top award in 1949, then promptly left for Richmond after a club leadership dispute. The difference is that Austen did not know he was a Brownlow medallist at the time he changed clubs. He was initially overlooked for what was then the VFL\u2019s top award on a countback to South Melbourne\u2019s Ron Clegg, but was acknowledged retrospectively from 1989 onwards as a joint winner.<\/p>\n Approaching the mid-point of this season, Butters \u2013 a restricted free agent weighing up offers to move home to Victoria \u2013 is equal fourth alongside Christian Petracca with bookies in betting for this year\u2019s top honour, behind only Marcus Bontempelli, Nick Daicos and Bailey Smith. After round nine, he, Bontempelli and Daicos are joint leaders of the AFL Coaches Association champion player award, all on 50 votes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The star midfielder was again at his best in a losing cause against the Western Bulldogs on Friday night, when he had 30 disposals, five clearances and 529 metres gained. He is averaging career highs in disposals (30.6), uncontested possessions (18.3) and inside 50s (5.8).<\/p>\n He has had 30 or more disposals in each of past eight games, the longest active streak, the 15th longest of all time, and the longest ever run by a Port Adelaide player.<\/p>\n Little wonder then that he is on the verge of signing what shapes as one of the richest deals in league history, potentially exceeding $16 million over eight years, according to league sources wishing to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n The Western Bulldogs, Geelong, Hawthorn, Essendon and Richmond all have strong interest, although Melbourne coach Steven King raised eyebrows on Monday when he suggested on SEN that Butters may have made his decision last year.<\/p>\n \u201cNot really sure,\u201d King replied when asked where Melbourne stands in the race for Butters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d be like every club that\u2019d love him, but from what you hear, I think it\u2019s down to a couple, and we might not be part of that discussion. We\u2019re certainly doing work behind the scenes to let him know that we\u2019re an option.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s probably been played out for a year or so in advance already.\u201d<\/p>\n The Power have said they will match any offer from a rival club.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cNothing has really changed my mind. I feel like the end of season will probably be when I make my decision. And I think I\u2019ll be sticking to that all year,\u201d Butters, the reigning club champion and a three-time John Cahill medallist, said last month.<\/p>\n While Butters is a Brownlow Medal fancy, his history as one of the most fined players ever \u2013 including the fact the MRO considered but decided not to sanction him for his bump on the Western Bullldogs\u2019 Joel Freijah at the weekend \u2013 means there could yet be disappointment looming.<\/p>\n Related Article There have been players who have left a year after claiming the Brownlow Medal, including Footscray\u2019s Brad Hardie (1985 winner; left for Brisbane after the \u201986 season) and Geelong\u2019s Gary Ablett junior (2009 winner; left for Gold Coast after the 2010 season). Hardie was only at the Dogs for two years, so is also among a rare number of players to win a Brownlow in their first year at a club. Brian Wilson (Melbourne in 1982), Greg Williams (Sydney in 1986) and Patrick Dangerfield (Geelong in 2016) are among the others.<\/p>\n But a Butters move, should he take home \u201cCharlie\u201d and head back to Victoria, could signal how times continue to change in the AFL world.<\/p>\n Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Port](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/333f313a08c4bd8582b38b3b2dd93c7876ded3ce.jpeg\")
Port Adelaide star Zak Butters may have already made a call on his future.AFL Photos<\/p>\n![\"Collingwood\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778532612_447_dfa560fd62d0adb6d98f97549dd5b5655b6414ef.jpeg\")
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Jon Pierik<\/a> is a sports journalist at The Age. He covers AFL and has won awards for his cricket and basketball writing.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-664594","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\/664594","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=664594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}