Port Adelaide superstar Zak Butters’ go-home wish looms large over AFL trade period

With four weeks left in the 2025 season, Port Adelaide superstar Zak Butters sat down with Power officials to broach the possibility of a trade home to Victoria.

The Power vice-captain was hit with an emphatic no.

And it’s easy to see why. The Power’s best player, who last month won his third consecutive best and fairest, has a year to run on his contract as new coach Josh Carr takes the reins.

“I’ll be here next year,” Butters told ABC Radio after the Power farewelled coach Ken Hinkley and champion Travis Boak with a win in the final game of the season.

Rival clubs hold onto a glimmer of hope Butters could go back on his word and ask again — this time more forcefully — as the trade period officially begins in the next 24 hours.

The 25-year-old’s strong family ties in Victoria were central to his desires to seek a football future back home.

Butters spends every minute possible on his family’s property in Darley (50km west of Melbourne). For Power matches in Victoria, he arrives early and departs late, with the club’s blessing. When he can support his local football club, he’s there.

But when a club gives their word, it is their word. And Butters as an asset is worth far more to the Power in 2026 than any draft picks this November.

No matter how hard opposition clubs try to prise Butters out, the spectre of the 181cm bulldozer looms large over the next 10 days.

Provided nothing happens this year, Butters will enter season eight in 2026 as a restricted free agent with a big decision to make — and if clubs want him, they’ll need to come armed.

Unless Port Adelaide finish in the bottom handful on the ladder, matching a free agency bid on Butters to force a trade would be an easy decision. Think Jeremy Cameron in 2020.

Given the Power’s strong current salary cap position, they will be able to match any offer.

Cameron was a Coleman medallist, GWS best and fairest, and All-Australian when the Giants matched Geelong’s bid.

Butters has three John Cahill Medals, is a dual All-Australian and winner of the 2023 Coaches’ Association Champion Player Award.

Cameron cost Geelong three first-rounders (they got a pair of second-rounders back) at the same age. It’s hard to see Butters costing any less.

The Western Bulldogs, Butters’ boyhood club, have held the strongest and longest interest in winning his signature.

They’d be prepared to offer upwards of $1.7 million a season over at least eight years if Butters was keen.

Butters has had contact with Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli, who has re-signed at the Kennel for four years.

“He’s (Butters) got a big decision on his mind, and I hope we’re in the situation and the football club looks potentially like a place he could see himself,” Bontempelli told 7NEWS in July.

“If we happen to end up in the same team, I’d be pretty happy about that too.”

You would’ve had to have had your head buried in the gourmet desserts in Crown Palladium on Brownlow Medal night to miss Butters’ extended chats at the Bulldogs’ table. At one stage he was the last person standing as the broadcast came back from a commercial break.

On a good day you can get from the Darley Bakehouse to the Barkers Café at Whitten Oval in 40 minutes. Essendon’s base at Tullamarine is just as close.

All 10 Victorian clubs will make a play if Butters explores a move in 2026.

Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium is an additional 10-minute commute. The Cats will pursue Butters to bolster their engine room, knowing full well the recent success in wooing players who hail from west of the West Gate speaks for itself.

Sam Mitchell’s Hawthorn is as aggressive as any club in search for A-Grade talent, yet the proximity of their new base at Dingley to Darley isn’t ideal.

Collingwood have the lure of the big stage, North Melbourne and Richmond will be cashed up, St Kilda have Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Melbourne have the MCG.

Then there’s Carlton, where Butters’ only football boss to this point of his career — Chris Davies — now calls home.

They’ll all have one thing in common — navigating a highly compromised 2027 draft. Tasmania own seven of the first 13 selections ahead of their expected first season, which highly dilutes the value of picks for other clubs.

For example, the team that finishes 10th would normally own pick No.9. In 2027 that will slide back to No.16 even before free agency compensation picks are factored in.

Clubs chasing Butters next year will have their 2026 Draft picks to splash as normal but will need to get savvy if they plan on using anything a year in advance.

Butters has had a lucrative contract offer on the table for much of 2025 to re-sign long, long term with the Power. It is one that he is yet to entertain and won’t be doing so anytime soon.

It won’t stop the Power throwing the kitchen sink at retaining him, and they’ll have 12 months to play every loyalty card to convince him his future is at Alberton.

Butters isn’t the type of character who will be a distraction in 2026. Head down, bum up, he is the ultimate team player who will throw himself at every contest.

But the landscape at the Power has changed. Hinkley, with whom Butters held an extremely close relationship with, is gone. It’s not to say Butters isn’t close with Carr, but Hinkley is all he’s known in a coach.

Plus — the Power look a long way from the side that played in three preliminary finals in five years.

And as much as he loves the club, what he loves most is 680km east.