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 this evening.
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.
Watch every game of every round this Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >
The Power pled not guilty arguing the impact was negligible, with a secondary argument that the high contact was careless rather than intentional.
The medical report stated there was no treatment required for Tom Green following the incident.
Giving evidence, Butters said he and Green got into a “mutual bump” and “went to push at the same time (making) very minimal to the chest area with my open hand”, aiming at his chest.
Butters said he first made contact with Green’s upper arm and his “fingers briefly brushed his face” and made the point Green received no medical assistance and nobody remonstrated with him.
The AFL’s lawyer Sam Bird argued the pair were playing within the rules of the game with some “argy-bargy” until the strike, and you could see Green’s head recoil after the contact.
“I think it’s pretty hard to see from that angle but that’s what I recall (fingers brushing Green’s face),” Butters said.
“I believe in that moment it was more him flinching from what was coming, not the actual intent and the force itself.”
Butters argued he was defending himself, that Green was also trying to assert himself physically, and that Green then appealed to the umpires after the incident.
Butters agreed it was “a tough contest overall” but “not too tough” with Green specifically.
The AFL argued Butters made “a clear decision to strike”.
“This is not glancing with a few fingers to the side of the face. This is a strike to the side of the face,” Bird said.
“The impact is sufficient given the video evidence that the Tribunal has before it to show there’s a strike to the side of the face, off the ball, in a circumstance when player Green would not be expecting to be struck in that way.”
Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson asked whether the Jesse Hogan ruling, which means there must be at least low impact in the high strike for the charge to be made out (rather than the automatic upgrade from negligible to low due to potential to cause injury), applied.
Bird replied in this circumstance the impact was worth the low grading.
Port Adelaide responded this was “a clear case of negligible contact” and was directly comparable to the Hogan incident, when the Giants forward was cleared. The Power argued the impact made by Hogan was actually greater.
“Watch the film and in particular Green’s reaction. He barely moves. He doesn’t ever go for his face. He’s not knocked off balance. That’s the quintessential definition of negligible,” the Power’s layer said.
The Power’s alternative submission was that the incident was careless not intentional, because Butters did not intend to make high contact.
Carlton unhappy with draft changes | 01:17
Views were split on the incident.
“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!
Source Agencies
