Richmond's $16 Million Bid for Zak Butters Shakes AFL Landscape
Richmond crashes the party. And it’s bringing a $16 million cheque book.
The Tigers have stormed into the Zak Butters free agency race with a proposal that would rewrite the financial history of the AFL, front-loading a monster deal designed to scare off every rival circling the Port Adelaide superstar.
Tigers swing for the fences
The Western Bulldogs and Geelong had been seen as the early leaders for Butters, largely because of geography. The 23-year-old grew up in Melbourne’s west, and the pull of home has always loomed as large as any dollar figure.
Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking didn’t hide the Cats’ interest when he spoke on 3AW last weekend, conceding they were one of “a host of clubs” keen on a player of Butters’ calibre.
Richmond has decided to test just how strong that pull of home really is.
According to AFL Media, the Tigers have quietly banked serious salary cap space across 2025 and 2026, the by-product of a young, cheaper list after the end of their premiership era. That war chest allows them to front-load a deal that could stretch to at least eight years and approach $2 million a season.
Put bluntly: Richmond is prepared to table the biggest contract in league history.
The raw numbers are staggering. The AFL’s salary cap has ballooned from $10.4 million in 2016 to $18.3 million for 2026. On that scale, a $2 million salary in 2026 consumes roughly the same slice of a club’s Total Player Payments as about $1.13 million did a decade earlier.
The context only sharpens the picture. Late in 2017, North Melbourne dangled $1.5 million a year in front of Dustin Martin. He turned it down to stay at Richmond for $1.3 million a season. That was seen as outlandish money then.
What Richmond is now prepared to offer Butters would sit above all of it.
Hawthorn and Collingwood are also understood to be in the hunt, but the battle lines are clear: one of the game’s brightest match-winners, a cluster of Victorian heavyweights, and a Port Adelaide side desperate not to lose the heartbeat of its midfield.
Family, flags and a club on edge
Butters isn’t rushing.
“Everyone here wants to win premierships, everyone at every other club wants to win premierships as well. No matter where I am, I want to win,” he told the ABC recently, after starring against Essendon in Round 2.
He didn’t hide the emotional tug either.
“Family’s important as well, it’s been important to me for a long time. My mum and dad are over this weekend so it’s good to see them. It’s obviously a big decision but I’m not going to make it any time soon.”
Port knows exactly what it stands to lose. On Tuesday night’s AFL 360, captain Connor Rozee revealed he has already started the sales pitch, even if his close mate isn’t giving much away.
“All that we can do as a football club is put ourselves in a position where he wants to be here,” Rozee told Fox Footy. “I know he’s got some of his best mates here, we’ve grown together, we’ve been together for eight years now, myself and a bunch of other guys.
“It’s a really tough decision. We’ve had people come and go from our football club; it’s part of the game now.”
Rozee knows the conversation won’t go away. Not this year.
“We’re going to have these conversations throughout the whole year … he doesn’t give me much, I know that he’s fully invested in this season, and that’s all I care about.
“That’ll take its own course at the end of the year … we’ll wait and see.”
Wait and see. While the league’s biggest clubs sharpen their pencils and Richmond readies a record-breaking offer.
The ruckman who said no
While Butters weighs up a future potentially worth $16 million, another Hawk has already made his call — and it cuts against the traditional gravity of the Victorian power clubs.
Ned Reeves, once on the fringe and fighting for relevance, has turned down Carlton and Collingwood to commit to Hawthorn until the end of 2029.
The decision looks bold on paper. It makes perfect sense when you trace the turning points.
Reeves, 27, had managed just five senior games across the previous two seasons. He’d slipped out of Sam Mitchell’s best side and, by his own admission, needed reassurance. It came late last year.
“Sam Mitchell came to him late last year and said ‘Ned, I want you’,” Fox Footy’s Jon Ralph revealed on the Midweek Tackle. Reeves’ response was telling: “I needed that, because he hadn’t played me for two years.”
Belief matters. So do the rules of the game.
Ralph detailed the moment that changed everything. Reeves was on a beach in Mexico when he checked his phone and saw the AFL’s ruck rules had been tweaked. The new interpretation rewards athleticism — the jumpers and leapers — rather than the old-school wrestlers and grapplers.
Suddenly, his skill set wasn’t a relic. It was an asset.
“He said to his teammates ‘I think I might be a chance again, lads’, and the rest is history,” Ralph said.
Carlton and Collingwood came hard. They saw a 211cm ruckman whose strengths now aligned with the direction of the game. Reeves chose faith and opportunity at Hawthorn over the lure of two cashed-up contenders.
One star weighs up the biggest deal in AFL history. Another big man bets on himself, his coach and a rulebook that finally suits him.
The money is getting louder. So are the choices.
