Butters call may swing star to join him at Cats as AFL wary of trade loophole
GWS captain Toby Greene has revealed that he has spoken with Zak Butters about his own future, as the pair weigh up free agency moves, potentially both joining Geelong.
Butters has told Port Adelaide he will be departing this off-season, with the Bulldogs, Cats and Tigers the teams he is choosing between.
Toby Greene is yet to make up his mind. Getty Images
Geelong has been seen as the narrow frontrunner, though the Bulldogs’ offer sits at an astonishing $18m over nine years.
Greene meanwhile is reportedly either joining the Cats as an unrestricted free agent, to relocate his family back to Victoria, or staying with the Giants and finishing his career a one-club player.
The Giants have concluded their season and held their best and fairest, won by defender Lachie Ash on Thursday night, but Greene admits he is still wrestling with his final decision.
“I’ve had a busy week and there’s a fair bit of thinking coming up, I’m wrestling with the decision,” Greene told SEN on Friday morning.
“It’s something I have to work out with the family.
“The factor of coming home to Vic is family, if we want to have more kids that makes life easier. I love the Giants, I put all my time and effort in there for 15 years, that’s what I wrestle with at the moment.
“All the contracts are pretty similar so that’s not really a factor in the decision.
“With Geelong I’ve had an open discussion, I told them what I think about and what I wrestle with and they then explained what it would look like for me. Geelong would be a lot less travel and more time for family.
“They discuss aspects of the role and how it would look in the team. It looks different at different options."
In that same chat, Greene revealed he had reached out to Butters to see where he was at, noting that the Power midfielder's decision may affect his own.
“I asked (Geelong about Butters), it’s important. I spoke to Zak as well and it’s something I will do again in the next few days, he adds a bit of weight to that decision.
“I wanted to see where his head was at, the things he values highly in his decision. That’s what I asked him.”
Speaking on Nine's Footy Classified on Tuesday, leading AFL reporter Cal Twomey revealed one of Butters' potential suitors, either the Cats or Dogs, had put forward a proposition to Port Adelaide on how to get the deal done.
This would involve the Power allowing Butters to leave as a restricted free agent, instead of matching the deal and forcing a trade. The club would then be granted pick five as first-band free agency compensation, given they hold pick four.
After that, the two teams would then engage in a one-sided trade that would see Port Adelaide acquire further picks and potentially players without having to give much up, maximising their return for the superstar.
Zak Butters will depart Port Adelaide. AFL Photos
The revelation of this potential arrangement has sparked a backlash, with fans and experts alike wondering how such a deal could possibly be legal. The draft pick a team receives for a free agent departing is supposed to be compensation in lieu of a trade.
Port has been staunch that they would match any free agency offer to force a trade for Butters, given they felt pick five would be an insufficient return.
Geelong pulled off a similar deal previously, acquiring pick seven and defender Jack Bowes from Gold Coast in 2022, in exchange for a third round pick. However, this was ticked off as a salary dump trade, with the Suns desperate to clear his money from their books.
Given the Bowes deal and the fact that the Cats were fined in 2025 for breaching third-party player payment rules, and then fined again in 2026 for a hidden concussion waiver in the contract of Jake Kolodjashnij, this potential loophole surrounding a Butters trade has raised significant eyebrows.
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes put the question directly to AFL head of football Greg Swann on Friday, saying “surely” it wouldn’t be allowed to happen.
Swann stated that every trade has to exist on its own merits.
“Let’s see what happens. If Zak goes and (Port) take the compensation pick and then there’s a trade for another player or trades for picks, it’s got to stand up,” Swann told SEN.
“We’ll just monitor that and see what it looks like.
“It’s a bit like, for which we got slammed for, when we sent the letter out to say don’t rest too many players (in Round 24) and everyone lost their minds. We do the same thing with trades. We do that every year.
“Every deal gets scrutinised. We talk to clubs and record with each party what the deal was, if there’s anything else behind it, if there’s any side deals or anything else involved.
“We always do that, so we’ll remind clubs again that’s the process and just monitor it as it happens.”
The Greene transaction will be far simpler given he is an unrestricted free agent. He simply has to nominate his team of choice, or sign a contract extension with GWS.
