It will be a case of “he said, he said” when Zak Butters heads to the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday afternoon in an umpire abuse case that has baffled many.
The Port Adelaide midfielder declared he will “fight to the hills” to clear his name after being reported and accused of questioning an umpire’s integrity in his side’s 14-point loss to St Kilda on Sunday night.
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Umpire Nick Foot didn’t hesitate in paying a 50m penalty against Butters for his words, stunning both he and nearby teammate Ollie Wines as St Kilda was given an easy goal.
As Butters and Wines jogged back to the middle for the next centre bounce, Foot ran past Butters and informed him he was on report. Broadcast cameras captured Butters’ shocked reaction.
On Monday the AFL confirmed the dispute would head to the tribunal — it is alleged Butters said to umpire Foot: “How much are they paying you?”:
Butters believes he actually said: “Why are you paying that?” or “How did he pluck that out?”
Watch Zak Butters’ interaction with the umpire in the video above
But there is no microphone audio capturing exactly what Butters said, and Foot is standing firm that Butters said: “How much are they paying you?”
There is a suggestion Butters was referencing Foot’s role at betting company Sportsbet, where he works giving horse racing tips.
“There’s no audio (of the incident), which is inconvenient to everyone to say the least,” Fox Footy’s Gerard Whateley said on Kayo Sports’ AFL360 program.
“We can’t even have a philosophical debate because it is straight out ‘he said, he said’.
“The philosophical debate would be isn’t this just a smart alec remark versus he’s actually questioning your integrity. but we don’t get to have that debate.”
Garry Lyon added: “What I’ve learned over many, many years is it’s not what Zak thinks he’s said, it’s how it’s received.
“We might say ‘how much are they paying you?’ and might think it’s a smart alec remark, but he (Foot) might think ‘I’m an independent arbiter, this is my job and you’re suggesting I’m getting paid’, so let’s deal with that.
“The racial abuse (reaction) used to be ‘get over it.’
“It’s not about who’s saying it but who’s receiving it and how they receive it.”
“What I’d like to see is (AFL general manager of football) Greg Swann rings them both up and get them in a room and they have it out in a room,” Lyon said.
“That’s not going to happen now because we’re going to be here tomorrow night and it’s going to be across every paper in the country tomorrow.
“Zak, who I know and love, will be going ‘hey, hey, hey’ and the umpire will be going ‘hey, hey, hey’ because his integrity is at stake, so here we go.”
Richmond champion Jack Riewoldt said the tribunal showdown will leave either Butters or Foot looking liking a liar.
“How on earth do you get to some sort of result out of this?,” Riewoldt posed on Fox Footy’s On the Couch.
“When all is said and done, either Zak Butters is going to be a liar, or Nick Foot is going to be a liar. And they’ve got to live with that for the rest of their careers.
“There’s a lot at play with this.
“My belief is Zak Butters is a bit of a sitting duck here with the way the AFL has worded their strong stance behind Nick Foot.”
Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley questioned if the case would’ve been better served with a “conversation behind closed doors in a mediation sense,” rather than a tribunal hearing.
“It speaks a bit to the player-umpire relationship, does it not?,” Buckley added.
“I think that’s been fractured in many ways for a couple of decades.
“It’s getting better and better, umpires are spending more time down at clubs in pre-season.
“That relationship is real important to continue to foster.”
The testimony of Power midfielder Ollie Wines is expected to be crucial for Butters.
“Ollie Wines is standing right there. In this instance, it doesn’t look demonstrative. But Ollie Wines has got to hear it,” Jordan Lewis said.
“A third person that comes into that conversation could prove Butters innocent or guilty.
“I would’ve liked Nick Foot to explain then and there what he thought Zak Butters had said and tried to have that conversation.
“To be a bit dismissive and run away and say I’m reporting you, that just leaves a player in limbo.
“I think we’re old enough and big enough to have a conversation the and there on what was said and potentially how he felt.”
AFL tipped to ‘back their man’
The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph said Butters and Foot refused to concede their ground and come to a resolution on Monday.
“The AFL gave both parties a couple of hours to consider and if someone wanted to concede their ground, they knew a tribunal hearing would be potentially damaging. But both parties stuck fat,” Ralph said on Fox Footy.
Ralph said the “elephant in the room” is that Foot is employed by Sportsbet, which the AFL has given him approval to do.
“It’s meant he’s suffered a torrent of abuse online today, people making all kinds of comments,” Ralph added.
“But Butters, by all accounts, didn’t know that connection. So it wasn’t like it was an off-handed quip about that, he wasn’t aware of it.
“The AFL higher ups say (Foot is) a man of great integrity, he knows the line, he knows the risk, he goes nowhere near football betting or anything like that, even football tips.
“So, Foot isn’t some kind of shrinking violet who would have been upset by someone quipping at him. He’s a person who has umpired nearly 270 AFL games including the 2024 Grand Final.
“He would not be following through on this complaint if he wasn’t absolutely explicit about what he thought was said and I imagine he’d make that case really strongly tomorrow night.
“Unfortunately for Zak Butters, even though it’s maybe only a couple of thousand dollars in terms of a fine, I think it’s really hard to see how the AFL and AFL Tribunal won’t back their man to the hill.”
The tribunal hearing will be held on Tuesday afternoon at 3.30pm AEST.
Port Adelaide next play Hawthorn in at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.
