Port Adelaide calls for AFL tribunal reform as club confirms it will appeal Zak Butters guilty verdict

Port Adelaide has confirmed it will appeal Zak Butters' guilty verdict at the AFL tribunal with chief executive Matthew Richardson calling for a reform to the process.

Speaking to media on Thursday, Richardson also said he felt empathy for juror Jason Johnson, who had to be in his car during the hearing to drive to an appointment.

That empathy came after Melbourne legend Garry Lyon teed off, labelling it "embarrassing" and saying it made the AFL look like a "circus".

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In a virtual tribunal hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Butters was found guilty of saying to umpire Nick Foot during Sunday's game against St Kilda: "How much are they [the Saints] paying you?"

It came to light during the tribunal hearing that Johnson was in his car during the final moments.

Port Adelaide was also frustrated the reasons for the guilty verdict couldn't be provided until the next day due to a deadline.

"Port Adelaide's position is straightforward – the tribunal process needs to be reformed," Richardson said.

"It is too legalistic, it's too adversarial and it places people under a level of scrutiny and stress which is disproportionate to the nature of the incidents it is designed to resolve."

Richardson wasn't willing to describe the tribunal hearing as "unprofessional" but said jurors were in positions "they shouldn't have been in".

The Port boss was then asked specifically about Johnson.

"All I will say to that is surely as an industry we're professional enough now where we can have a panel of people available on a Monday or Tuesday night, knowing there's likely to be a tribunal hearing, that can invest all their time into that moment," Richardson said.

"I actually have significant empathy for that situation because I don't think that person should have been put in that situation."

On the topic of Johnson, Lyon unloaded on Wendesday night's edition of Fox Footy's AFL 360.

"Sometimes we've gotta save ourselves from ourselves," Lyon said.

"If it's me, if it's your reputation on the line, and it's a hotly disputed argument and there's a level of detail that needs to be absorbed, I don't want the bloke who's sitting in judgment of me ... in a car, in transit.

"I want them sitting down, taking copious amounts of notes, cross-referencing, listening intently and not being distracted by what may or may not be going on in the outside world because you're in a car, and the fact that you may go past the local McDonald's and your car might drop out, the service drops out, and then you've gotta come back in.

"It's embarrassing at worst.

"How would that wash on the world stage?

"This is a multibillion-dollar business, a multibillion-dollar organisation, we are demanding the absolute best in every aspect of what we do in the football community, and the world stage come in and say, 'Right, I'm watching this, this is how you're gonna do your case, there's the closing arguments that come on'. And where's the jury? Where are the people who are gonna pass judgment on this? One of them is in the car.

"How's that wash? What's that look like?"

Johnson, who played 184 games with Essendon, was one of two jurors along with Richmond great Darren Gaspar. The tribunal hearing was chaired by Renee Enbom.

Tribunal resources were stretched thin with the Lance Collard judgment taking place simultaneously, and the Butters case had been re-scheduled several times.

"I'm not having a crack at Jason Johnson; apparently it got changed around and that sort of stuff. But we've gotta be better than that," Lyon continued.

"I know there's other things in all of this, but you can't be having a juror who's about to pass judgment on the hottest case going around, it's all about integrity, it's all about who said what when, you're about to highlight some of the delicate timings of all this, and where's the bloke? Oh, he had to go, he had something [on], he's in the car.

"Come on – that just makes us look like a circus."

Wide World of Sports contacted the AFL for comment.