Zak Butters in hot water for bump on Joel Freijah ahead of huge free agency call

Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr took a glass half-full approach after another tight loss, this time a two-point heartbreaker to the Western Bulldogs, and a contentious Zak Butters bump that could sideline the Power superstar.

Port has lost to Hawthorn by three points, Adelaide by one, and the Dogs by two in the past month to fall to a 3-6 record.

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Butters has averaged 31 possessions a game during that period, but is in danger of missing next week’s clash against Gold Coast in Darwin after he went past the ball to lay a fierce bump on Joel Freijah in the last quarter at Adelaide Oval.

“I haven’t watched the replay. My initial thought was, ‘I don’t think he got him high’, but I haven’t had a look at it close enough,” Carr said.

Butters didn’t have eyes on the ball when he met Freijah, who was able to play on and take his free kick, but replays were inconclusive as to whether his shoulder made contact with Freijah’s chin.

After a stellar start to the season, Butters had been one of the favourites for the Brownlow Medal, but betting was suspended following the incident.

Port can ill afford to lose Butters, who shouldered too much of the midfield burden against the Dogs.

It comes with the star free agent’s future in the spotlight as he considers a move back to Victoria at season’s end.

The Bulldogs, who Butters grew up supporting, are considered the favourites among several clubs trying to lure him home.

“Every football club in the land believes if he does head home, it will be to the Dogs,” Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph said on Fox Footy.

“The industry view would be that if he departs as a free agent, of course the Power will match it and try force a trade.

“But he’s still out of contract. That means you can’t ask for four first-rounders, like Essendon did with their contracted former captain, Zach Merrett.

“The Power have not read that memo.”

The Power are balancing Butters’ looming free agency call with a need to match a bid on highly-rated NGA player Dougie Cochrane after the AFL changed the draft rules.

It means clubs will need to pay a higher price for father-son and Academy prospects and use a maximum of two draft picks to match bids.

“Even without playing this year, Dougie Cochrane, their NGA player, is the consensus No. 1 draft pick. So you need two first-rounders to throw at him to match a bid in the draft,” Ralph added.

“You need three first-rounders overall for Zak Butters, you need to win out of this, as a net gain.”

Carr gave a blunt assessment of his side’s efforts.

“We were horrible, in the first half especially, trying to be too cute with the footy,” he said.

“The conditions obviously were slippery, but we had opportunities to get inside 50 and put them under pressure, and we didn’t.

“It was just a really bad night.”

The Power has suffered four losses of three points or less this season, but the coach is confident it hasn’t dampened spirits among his group.

“We keep fronting up … they’re a resilient group,” he said.

“Off the back of last week’s Showdown, and that disappointment, to keep fronting up and preparing the right way … we didn’t start the game well, and left it up to really only a couple of players in the game.

“I felt like there’s probably a number of passengers.”

Miles Bergman sat out the second half of the game after suffering an injury to a big toe that will be assessed to determine its severity.

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