Port Adelaide superstar Zak Butters’ hopes of a late charge into Brownlow Medal contention, and playing in the side’s crunch clash with Brisbane on Saturday, rely on winning his appeal at the AFL Tribunal tonight. Live from 4pm AEST!
Butters is hoping to overturn a one-match ban handed down for his open-hand slap on GWS midfielder Tom Green during the Power’s loss on Sunday.
The incident was graded as intentional, because it was off the ball, with low impact and high contact resulting in a one-match ban.
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It is expected the Power will argue Butters initially made contact with Green’s upper arm, not the head, or dispute the impact grading.
“That’s a joke. That’s not a week,” Herald Sun chief footy writer Mark Robinson said on AFL 360.
“I’ve got his defence: Go and get the Jesse Hogan punch to the face, hand it in and ‘we rest our case’. Jesse Hogan can punch someone in the face and get a fine — and he (Butters) gets a week suspension for that. He shouldn’t do it, but the precedent has been set.”
In the Hogan case, the Giants successfully argued his impact to the head of Carlton’s Lewis Young was negligible, after initially making contact with Young’s arm and rising up onto his face.
The Power are challenging both Butters’ incident as well as Charlie Dixon’s three-game SANFL suspension for a bump which concussed his opponent. The latter hearing will take place on Wednesday evening.
Butters is a dark horse contender for the Brownlow, likely sitting on double-digit votes but behind favourites Nick Daicos, Isaac Heeney, Marcus Bontempelli and Max Gawn.
Follow the Zak Butters hearing live below!