Inside Port Adelaide young gun Zak Butters’ rise to AFL superstardom and his love for his local club Darley
An ex-Collingwood and Carlton midfielder who coached Butters to an A-grade premiership says he “was a class above everybody, myself included”. Soon after, Zak was in Power colours.
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Zak Butters’ cheeky smile widens as he runs across the oval after his team kicks a goal.
It is Saturday, April 29 and the 22-year-old is playing his role in another win.
This time, as the runner for his junior club, Darley.
Sixteen hours after his brilliant, 27-disposal performance helps Port Adelaide edge St Kilda by seven points at Marvel Stadium, Butters is wearing a pink shirt and shorts, passing on coaches’ instructions to country footballers.
Darley’s usual runners are not at Eastern Oval for the Ballarat league match against finals contender East Point due to illness, so the Power star is only happy to pitch in.
“We were sort of scrambling a little bit and Zak put his hand up,” Devils coach and ex-Essendon assistant Dan Jordan tells The Advertiser.
“He’s got a really tight-knit bunch of mates over here that he grew up with … and likes getting back, likes getting out of the (AFL) footy bubble.
“He gets down in pre-season when he has his breaks and has a bit of a run around with the boys.
“It’s not uncommon for players to go watch their junior clubs but it’d be pretty rare for them to be the runner.
“For the 17, 18, 19-year-olds coming through, he’s someone they would look up to greatly.
“But we don’t treat him as an AFL footballer, we just treat him as Zak and one of the Darley boys.”
Located in Bacchus Marsh, about 50 minutes west of Melbourne, the Devils produced the No. 1 pick in last year’s national draft, Aaron Cadman.
Now, Butters is the Darley boy whose name is up in lights.
The former goalsneak turned midfielder is the joint leader in AFL coaches’ association voting with 51 heading into round 11 after polling 10 in each of the past three matches.
Last Friday night was arguably the best performance of his career: 41 disposals, two goals and 10 clearances in torrid conditions to inspire Port to a gritty, four-point home win over Melbourne – the Power’s seventh straight victory.
Butters becoming one of the competition’s best players this season may surprise some footy followers.
Not those who followed his rise through the junior ranks at Darley.
“He was very wiry but the thing that stood out watching him as a kid was his exceptional disposal by hand and foot – pinpoint accuracy,” says club president Mark Shelly, a former runner of one of Butters’s junior teams.
“You could tell then he was a superstar.
“He was always a hard worker and always willing to put the extras in, now he’s seeing the fruits of it.”
Ex-Collingwood and Carlton midfielder Heath Scotland – Butters’ A-grade premiership coach at Darley in 2017 – adds: “You see him in the wet weather and he’s a one-touch player who makes really good decisions, brings people into the game and doesn’t waste disposals.
“He puts his body on the line for his club, he’s hard at it but he’s got time and poise, doesn’t fumble.
“In the wet weather, you see the better players step up and you see the quality of the kid.”
Power coach Ken Hinkley hailed Butters’ performance against the Demons as one of the better games you could see from a smaller player.
He called the 181cm, 78kg on-baller “a tough, brave little prick, who takes big moments and turns them into something special.”
Scotland says they are qualities Butters has always had.
Darley is a blue-collar club, which thrives on getting its hands dirty, and Butters’s dad, Wayne, has instilled in him that he must always have a crack.
“Zak certainly didn’t shirk an issue as a 16-year-old, coming up against men,” Scotland says.
“He’d put his body on the line, constantly.”
The third quarter of the 2017 Ballarat league grand final featured one of those gutsy, special moments.
“The game was in the balance, Bacchus Marsh had the ball coming out of the backline and he’s put in a brilliant smother, retrieved it with a clean take and hit me up to kick a goal that gave us a bit of breathing space,” Scotland says.
“He had more time than anybody else on the field and was a class above everybody, myself included.
“Most kids at that age are looking to just get a few touches and contribute, but he was leading the charge.”
Butters’ talent and hard work led to the Power drafting from Western Jets with pick 12 in the 2018 national draft.
He made his AFL debut – alongside fellow first-round draftees Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma – in round 1 the following year.
At the end of his second season, Butters was named in the All-Australian squad of 40 and played in a preliminary final.
Then came a significant setback in early 2021 in the form of an ankle syndesmosis injury, nerve damage and surgery.
Scotland says Butters has shown resilience to get to where he is now.
“He has that competitive nature, which I’ve seen as a kid – he’s fierce – and that drive clearly has held him in good stead to get him where he’s at,” he says.
Butters plays with an enthusiasm and zest that appears contagious.
He celebrates goals with passion, often by yelling or with his tongue out.
Always seeming to be having fun on the field, particularly when the Power is winning.
“We can all get seduced because he’s a smiling assassin, happy-go-lucky, but don’t get fooled by that … he’s a beast, he’s a warrior,” Scotland says.
“And at AFL level, it’s pushing him to the heights he’s going.”
Butters has become a full-time midfielder this season after splitting between the forward line and engine room last year.
Champion Data figures show he is averaging 26.9 disposals (up from 22.1 in 2022), 11.2 contested possessions (8.8), 416 metres gained (279m), 5.1 inside 50s (3.3) and 6.4 score involvements (5).
Jordan says Butters’ cleanliness and the speed at which he makes good decisions separates him from most AFL players.
“You can see when he’s got the ball in hand, he’s already scanning the field to see what to do with it and then his execution is excellent too,” he says.
“It’s always a weighted kick, a weighted handball to release someone and that’s game IQ and intelligence.
“That’s something I see in Zak that I’ve only seen in very few players.”
One of Port Adelaide’s all-time greats, Robbie Gray, had similar football smarts.
He handed his No. 9 guernsey to Butters when he retired at the end of last season.
Hinkley said last Friday night: “Robbie knew who he was giving his jumper to, and it has been vindicated, hasn’t it?”
Jordan says Butters was chuffed to receive the guernsey and would be stoked to at all emulate Gray’s career.
“You never want to put any ceiling on things, but if I know Zak he’s not after individual awards, he just wants the team to get better,” he says.
“I know he’ll be busting to play finals and perform on a big stage.
“Teams will start to put some attention to him and he’ll be OK with that because then some of his teammates will get off the chain.”
Jordan says he can tell that Butters is driven to get the best out of himself but also smart enough to know when to relax.
“That’s a bit of what going to Darley’s about for Zak – switching off and having fun,” he says.
“It’s important to be able to find that balance.”
Butters grew up spending long chunks of his Saturdays at Darley’s matches.
“As a kid, he’d watch the game before, the game after – he was always a complete footy head,” Shelly says.
His love for the club has never waned, even as he has chased his own dreams of making the AFL and trying to help the Power succeed.
“When he wasn’t playing for Western Jets (in his draft year) … he was coming back doing stats for me,” Scotland says.
“He had his future ahead of him, but he was grounded and wanted to support and help out where he could.”
Jordan almost always gets a text from Butters after Darley wins.
“He’s always very, very invested,” he says.
So too are the club and community in the emerging superstar, whom they describe as having a heart of gold, along with a great appreciation of where he comes from.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to watch him play the standard of footy he is now,” Scotland says.
“He’s living out a dream … and we’re all on the ride with him.”
Port Adelaide is third on the ladder with an 8-2 record, while Darley is 5-0.
Butters will no doubt be hoping for a premiership double this year, as the Power looks to end a 19-year drought and the Devils try to claim their first since that 2017 triumph.
In the meantime, he will be following Darley closely, either from the sidelines or watching games on the livestream where he can.
You sense Butters will return to play for Darley once his AFL career is over, just like Scotland after his 268 games and Brett Bewley, the club’s 2023 captain, since his 25 games at Fremantle.
“Little examples like him doing the running just show the type of person he is,” says Scotland, who is now coaching Essendon district league club Deer Park.
“He’s very level-headed, selfless and giving.
“He doesn’t do that for any accolades or pats on the back, or for anyone to talk about him.”
Right now, Butters’s feats for the Power have him being spoken about very highly across the football world.
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