{"id":922708,"date":"2026-10-10T05:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922708\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T05:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:52:21","slug":"afl-2026-what-zak-butters-hopes-the-western-bulldogs-can-achieve-now-that-hes-playing-alongside-marcus-bontempelli-and-under-luke-beveridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922708\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: What Zak Butters hopes the Western Bulldogs can achieve now that he\u2019s playing alongside Marcus Bontempelli and under Luke Beveridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jon<\/p>\n

October 10, 2026 \u2014 9:58am<\/p>\n

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Boom recruit Zak Butters says the Western Bulldogs are on the cusp of \u201csomething special\u201d, and revealed he turned to Marcus Bontempelli for advice throughout the year before making his decision to head to the Whitten Oval.<\/p>\n

Butters, 26, is officially a Bulldog on a record nine-year contract worth between $17 million and $17.5 million<\/a> after the AFL on Friday approved a convoluted side deal involving five clubs and a series of first, second and later draft picks exchanged.<\/p>\n

The Butters contract is the biggest in AFL history in total, though he will earn less than the $2 million per season St Kilda\u2019s Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera has made.<\/p>\n

\"ReadyReady to start: Zak Butters is looking forward to getting to work with the Western Bulldogs.AFL Photos<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to make the decision and be here, and, yeah, I feel like it was a long time getting to this point,\u201d Butters said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Rebounding<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd a few people told me along the journey that when you know, you know. And I felt like, yeah, once I knew, I just wanted to get it done, and get here and meet everyone and start my next journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butters had already formed a friendship with Bontempelli, the Bulldogs\u2019 skipper and legendary figure, which the club had felt was a factor in their favour in the intense competition for the midfield gun that also involved Richmond and Geelong.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously one that I am looking forward to playing with, and he\u2019s been an inspiration of mine since I was a kid, and probably more so the more I got to know him, not just this year, but along the journey and playing against him,\u201d Butters told the Bulldogs\u2019 website.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019m] trying to be the best, so you\u2019re trying to learn off the best, and he\u2019s he\u2019s definitely one of them. So, over the last year as well, he\u2019s just been a good sounding board and someone that you want to play footy with.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Nick<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like, as much as I can add to the footy club, that I\u2019ll learn a lot from him, and some other guys at the footy club as well. So, yeah, I\u2019m really looking forward to learning and becoming better off guys like Marcus and Bevo [coach Luke Beveridge] as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butters grew up following the Dogs, his family residing in Darley on the western metropolitan fringe. He played for the Western Jets before being taken by the Power with the 12th pick of the 2018 national draft.<\/p>\n

He said one of the highlights of his life had been attending the 2016 finals, when the Bulldogs unexpectedly stormed to their second club premiership.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I have loved the Bulldogs since I was a kid, had plenty of jumpers growing up, and loved a lot of different players. But, probably, 2016 is hard to top,\u201d Butters said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember catching the train in from Bacchus Marsh, and watching the finals, and was lucky enough to sneak a few tickets through friends and family. And yeah, I remember catching the train home after the \u201916 granny [grand final], and, obviously, catching the train back through the west to get to Bacchus Marsh, it was pretty chaotic and loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still one of my favourite days that I\u2019ve had in footy. So it\u2019d be cool to try and run that back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butters said he wants to be role model for youth in the western suburbs, reinforcing that they, too, can reach the heights of elite football.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He failed to play in a grand final in his eight years with the Power, and wants that to change at his new club. The Dogs\u2019 2026 campaign ended with an elimination final defeat to Adelaide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting stage for the football club, and one that we can, hopefully, really challenge in,\u201d Butters said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you want to bring members and all that along for the ride, and bring them in on the journey, and you want them to be there for the wins and the losses, and come along for the ride with us. And I feel like it could be something pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Close\"JonJon 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":"October 10, 2026 \u2014 9:58am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-922708","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\/922708","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=922708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}