An AFL giant has made a $16 million entry into the league’s biggest free agency race.
Plus the rule change that allowed a ruckman to reject two big Victorian clubs. Get the latest in Trade Whispers!
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AFL GIANT’S STUNNING $16M ENTRY INTO FREE AGENT RACE
Richmond is willing to give Zak Butters the biggest contract in league history as the rebuilding giant enters the hunt for the game’s top free agent.
The Western Bulldogs and Geelong are viewed as Butters’ top suitors, in a race likely to be determined more by a desire to be closer to his family in Melbourne’s west than pure cash.
“Happy to acknowledge we are one of a host of clubs that would have an interest in a player of that level,” Geelong CEO Steve Hocking said on 3AW last weekend.
But AFL Media reports the Tigers have banked salary cap space over the 2025 and 2026 seasons, thanks to their young list, and can front-load their offer to blow rivals out of the water.
It’s expected Butters will land a long-term contract of at least eight years, on close to $2 million a year, but that figure will only rise as more contenders enter the race for his services.
Richmond’s offer would hit those marks making it the largest deal in footy history – a statistic heavily impacted by the rising salary cap, which has gone from $10.4 million in 2016 to $18.3 million in 2026.
Proportionally, a $2 million salary in 2026 takes up as much of a club’s TPP as a $1.13 million salary would have a decade ago.
For context, in late 2017 Dustin Martin was offered $1.5 million a year by North Melbourne, but accepted $1.3 million a year to stay at Richmond.
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Hawthorn and Collingwood are also believed to have interest in Butters.
“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 and I loved playing with that team today (against Essendon in Round 2). Family’s important as well, it’s been important to me for a long time,” Butters told the ABC recently.
“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.”
On Tuesday night’s edition of AFL 360, Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee said he had spoken with Butters to try and convince him to stay, but that his mate “doesn’t give him much”.
“All that we can do as a football club is put ourselves in a position where he wants to be here. 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,” Rozee said on Fox Footy.
“It’s a really tough decision. We’ve had people come and go from our football club; it’s part of the game now.
“We’re going to have these conversations throughout the whole year … he doesn’t give me much (when I ask him to stay), 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.”
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HOW REVIVED HAWK REJECTED RIVALS
It’s been revealed Ned Reeves knocked back two powerhouse Victorian clubs to stay at Hawthorn, with the changed ruck rules the catalyst to his resurgence.
Reeves, who battled to reclaim the number one ruck mantle at the Hawks, re-signed late last year through the 2029 season.
The 27-year-old, who had played just five senior games across the past two seasons, rejected overtures from Carlton and Collingwood to stay in brown and gold long-term.
That’s according to the Midweek Tackle’s Jon Ralph, who revealed the “two key flashpoints” leading to Reeves’ recommittal.
“Carlton and Collingwood came at Reeves really hard,” Ralph told Fox Footy on Tuesday night.
“Sam Mitchell came to him late last year and said ‘Ned, I want you’ … (Reeves said) ‘I needed that, because he hadn’t played me for two years’, but he (Mitchell) believed in him.
“And then he’s sitting at a beach in Mexico, and he looks at his phone, and the ruck rules have changed. All of a sudden, (the rules are) incentivising the jumpers, the leapers — not the wrestlers and the grapplers.
“He said to his teammates ‘I think I might be a chance again, lads’, and the rest is history’.”
Reeves, who appears to have usurped teammate Lloyd Meek in the Hawks’ pecking order, had the tap-out of the year thus far on Easter Monday, when he hit it down Jai Newcombe’s throat for a clearance that led to Mitch Lewis’ game-tying shot at goal.
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