Zak Butters free agency latest, huge Geelong offer revealed as Cats, Bulldogs eye Pick 5 trade twist

Geelong has tabled a club-record offer for Zak Butters, according to CODE Sports reporter Jon Ralph, as the Cats ramp up their bid to land the in-demand free agent.

It comes as speculation mounts Port Adelaide’s free agency compensation pick could be the key mechanism in helping Butters land at either Geelong or the Western Bulldogs.

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Butters last week officially informed Port Adelaide of his desire to exercise his free agency rights, but didn’t nominate which club he’d like to join.

The superstar on-baller is weighing up offers from Geelong, Richmond and the Western Bulldogs.

The Tigers, for months, had been seen as having the most financially appealing deal on the table. But it was reported earlier this week the Bulldogs had recently increased their offer for Butters.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle on Tuesday night, Ralph said the Cats had also tabled a monster nine-year offer in their latest bid to lure Butters to Kardinia Park.

“It’s been a closely guarded secret, but I can tell you tonight that Geelong has offered him by far the biggest deal in Geelong contract history,” Ralph told Midweek Tackle.

“It’s well above $1.5 million. It’s not quite to the $2 million the Western Bulldogs have put up, so there is a very small gap there. But whether it’s $1.7 million or $1.8 million – it’s massive money and it’s well above the biggest deal that Geelong currently has.

“The expectation is that it’s nine seasons. All those clubs (chasing Butters) have had to go to nine years.

“Geelong wouldn’t comment tonight.”

WHY GEELONG ARE KEEN TO GO BIG

The prospect of Butters joining a Geelong list that already includes big-name recruits like Patrick Dangerfield, Jeremy Cameron and Bailey Smith would be hard for non-Cats fans to fathom.

But as Ralph pointed out on Tuesday night, the Cats are throwing big cash at Butters because they “realise this is as big a free agency acquisition as they are going to have”.

“There’s a lot of cynicism around, but they have just been so responsible with their cap management,” Ralph said of the Cats.

“One thing they’ve just done is a deal with Tyson Stengle. He was on $700,000 a year, so that money free in your cap straight away.

“Jeremy Cameron and Patty Dangerfield are coming off the end of reasonable deals and are in the last few years in their careers. Tom Stewart and Mark Blicavs have always played for the local discount. Bailey Smith is on $700,000 and he’s playing $1.4 million football – he’s about to get an uptick. Connor O’Sullivan is on the Jagga Smith deal right now. So some of those guys will be paid more in coming years.

“But if you are a Lawson Humphries, you want to stay for $100,000 or $200,000 or $300,000 less over coming years because you want to play with Zak Butters and you want to win flags. I think that saves, I think that’s almost a loss leader and Geelong is reasonably confident they can still get their man.”

THE PICK 5 TWIST

But while Geelong’s contract offer is understood to be enormous, the bigger question could be how either the Cats or Bulldogs get Butters to their club.

Richmond, which holds Pick 2, has long been viewed as having the most enticing draft capital to satisfy Port Adelaide in a Butters trade. But SEN’s Sam Edmund reported on Tuesday Butters “will not pick” Richmond, unless Geelong or the Western Bulldogs find it impossible to do a deal for the free agent midfielder.

Speaking on Channel 9 on Tuesday night, AFL Media reporter Cal Twomey said Pick 5 — the compensation selection the Power would receive if it allowed Butters to leave as a free agent — could “become a part of the overall transaction and package that will end up going to Port Adelaide”.

“As far as whether he goes to the Bulldogs or the Cats, I think that’s going to be the central part to it. Then there’s going to be some extra deals along the way throughout the trade period,” Twomey told Footy Classified.

The Age’s Peter Ryan on Wednesday morning reported “the best result” for the Power could be “to take the compensation before working from there to maximise the return for their club”.

“If they did go down the compensation path, the gap in their collateral would be picks in the 2027 national draft, which they will need for emerging father-son and NGA prospects Louis Salopek and Zemes Pilot,” Ryan wrote for The Age.

“That need could be met via another deal with either the Cats or the Bulldogs, which would need to be AFL-approved but could include, according to sources at other clubs, trading in the Cats’ or Bulldogs’ first-round pick in 2027 for two second-round picks in 2028, or something similar.”

‘I’M NONE THE WISER’: BEVERIDGE’S BUTTERS ADMISSION

Which club Butters chooses, though, remains a mystery.

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said he was “none the wiser” about which way Butters was leaning, despite the Bulldogs’ public confidence they remain firmly in the race.

“I’ve probably done my bit over the journey with Zak and I’m sure that the Cats’ representatives have too,” Beveridge told Footy Classified on Tuesday night. “But now I think behind the scenes, the list management teams are working feverishly to convince Port Adelaide – and still to convince Zac – that we’re the right club for him.

“But as far as any indication as to who he might choose, I have no idea.”

Beveridge said “geography” was his major concern over Butters’ decision.

“Darley, his hometown, and how relative it is to metropolitan Melbourne versus Geelong or the Bellarine Peninsula – whatever’s being sold to him down there – we were just hoping that he’d want to come and be immersed in the western suburbs and live in Williamstown or somewhere like that,” Beveridge said.

“So the geography is the one for me that I’d been concerned about. It still sort of sticks in my head, so I’m hoping he can get through that.

“But as far as the potential of which club might be successful in the future, I’m sure Zak seeing some really good signs from us. It’s hard to have a crystal ball, but he knows that we’re a club that is solid. We’ve got great people and he’s met a lot of them and he played with a few of them from both teams in the state game, so he’s he of had a connection already.”

‘CLEARLY’ ALL IN? DOGS QUESTIONED

Bulldogs chief executive Ameet Bains declared on AFL Nation on Friday night his club was “clearly all in” for Butters and remained a “realistic chance” to land him.

But Fox Footy broadcaster Corbin Middlemas questioned whether the Bulldogs had pulled out all the stops.

“Have the Bulldogs done everything they can to set this up for Zak Butters to be the most desirable landing spot?” Middlemas asked on Midweek Tackle.

“Their coach is off-contract at the end of next season. Zak Butters has just walked out of a scenario where the coach changed, there was big upheaval, (Ken) Hinkley handing over to Josh Carr. And yet he’s going to walk straight into another football club that could be on the precipice of something similar in 2027. And there’s no commitment at this stage who’s going to coach the Bulldogs in 2028. So that’s a very pressing matter for him, I’m sure.

“They (the Dogs) haven’t been able to address their needs in the key defensive post department for a number of years. They’ve had a top-three player in Marcus Bontempelli for the last seven years, haven’t been able to maximise his prime.

“So you compare all of that to Geelong and, really, the best selling point for the Western Bulldogs is: ‘Well, Zak Butters supported us as a kid.’

“I know the neutrals out there will sit there and think: ‘I’m sick of Geelong, they’re always getting all these star players.’ If you put yourself in Zak Butters’ position and you’ve got those two options on the table, I can understand why he’d choose the Cats.”

Asked what the Bulldogs’ next move should be, Middlemas said: “You’ve just got to paint a vision for him, don’t you?

“The senior coach is a huge part of that. Four key pillars at a footy club and there’s no commitment to him (Beveridge) beyond the end of next year. It has to play a role.

“So if they ultimately miss out on him, I don’t think you can sit back as a footy club and say ‘we did everything we could, we put all our chips in’. Well, clearly, they didn’t.”

Whatever decision Butters makes, the Cats’ offer has significantly raised the stakes in what is clearly the biggest free agency battle of the AFL off-season.

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