{"id":450610,"date":"2025-05-19T20:33:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T20:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=450610"},"modified":"2025-05-20T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T00:15:00","slug":"frontrunner-emerges-for-port-star-zak-butters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=450610","title":{"rendered":"Frontrunner emerges for Port star Zak Butters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/hawthorn-hawks-5sj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Hawthorn\">Hawthorn<\/a> is the frontrunner for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/port-adelaide-power-5sm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Port Adelaide\">Port Adelaide<\/a> star Zak Butters, according to Nine journalist Sam McClure.<\/p>\n<p>The Power midfielder is contracted until the end of 2026, where he will become one of the game&#x27;s hottest free agents of all time, but has been linked with numerous Victorian sides.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffMcClure believes a move to Hawthorn in this trade period could be on the cards, as Port enters a new era without Ken Hinkley next year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2025-james-hird-responds-exclusive-essendon-bombers-coaching-caroline-wilson-report-20250519-p5m0k6.html\"><strong>Hird responds to stunning Essendon coaching return links<\/strong><\/a><strong>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2025-western-bulldogs-coach-luke-beveridge-interview-contract-extension-update-20250519-p5m0k2.html\"><strong>&#x27;Right path&#x27;: Bulldogs coach drops huge contract hint<\/strong><\/a><strong>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2025-west-coast-eagles-brady-hough-st-kilda-saints-rowan-marshall-mro-fine-watch-video-20250519-p5m0jo.html\"><strong>Eagles defender fined for late bump on injured rival<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"ba11ee35-219b-4b57-88aa-da2c1285d5e9\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/ba11ee35-219b-4b57-88aa-da2c1285d5e9\" alt=\"Zak Butters\" data-width=\"4186\" data-height=\"2355\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;I just think that given Port Adelaide doesn&#x27;t have a lot of draft capital \ufeffand they&#x27;ll be looking to bring some back in, and I think given his closeness with Ken Hinkley, then there maybe a reset from both club and player,&quot; McClure told Nine&#x27;s Footy Classified.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;\ufeffIf he was making the decision right now, my guess would be that he would be playing for Hawthorn next year.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Footy Classified is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/au\/podcast\/footy-classified\/id1613655095__;!!LBk0ZmAmG_H4m2o!4hhwHjabMUBkzJdXouUw83cK0wQHU_cP4LS-eZO0oLWXAo2dckbSNFdMfvIUD8U$\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><em><strong>Apple<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>,<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/63uLETnZOKLd2Ak92ywEEg__;!!LBk0ZmAmG_H4m2o!4hhwHjabMUBkzJdXouUw83cK0wQHU_cP4LS-eZO0oLWXAo2dckbSNFdMT67jr3w$\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><em><strong>Spotify<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <em><strong>or<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvODhiNTY0ZWEtYTlhNi00NzUxLTkxMGEtYTVkODAwMDE5Mzk2L2EwNjRlNWM0LWFkNzQtNGFmYi04MTQxLWFlNTQwMDQwM2ZmOC83NGQyMWQxMy1iYmZmLTRmM2YtYmQ5My1hZTU0MDA0MGZjMmMvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M%3d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><em><strong>Google Podcasts<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;\ufeffMy belief is that Hawthorn has created space in their list. They probably know that Harley Reid will spend one more year at West Coast as it stands.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think they&#x27;ll be putting most of their eggs\ufeff in the Zak Butters basket.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Damian Barrett believes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/geelong-cats-5sg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Geelong\">Geelong<\/a> and the Western Bulldogs are also firmly in the mix. Butters grew up supporting the Dogs.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>&quot;\ufeffI wouldn&#x27;t be ruling out Geelong or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/western-bulldogs-5sr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Western Bulldogs\">Western Bulldogs<\/a> in that conversation,&quot; Barrett added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Hawthorn is the frontrunner for Port Adelaide star Zak Butters, according to Nine journalist Sam McClure. The Power midfielder is contracted until the end of <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=450610\" title=\"Frontrunner emerges for Port star Zak Butters\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":450612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=450610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450613,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450610\/revisions\/450613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/450612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=450610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=450610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=450610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}