Port Adelaide star Zak Butters has had a successful trip to the AFL Tribunal with his one-match suspension for striking GWS‘ Tom Green thrown out.
Seven minutes into the first quarter of the match, Butters gave away a free kick inside Port’s forward 50 after his tussle with Green.
“That was a little jab from Butters, it was a push and shove with Tom Green and he’s just given him a flat hand and got him in the face,” Saints legend Nick Dal Santo said on Fox Footy.
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“… it is an open hand, a palm but it comes off the shoulder and hits Tom Green in the face so they’ll have a very close look at that.”
Post-game, the match review officer handed Butters a one-match suspension for striking. The charge was graded as intentional conduct, low impact and high contact.
Port great Kane Cornes described the decision as soft.
“That would be the softest suspension we’ve seen all year … there was hardly anything in it,” he said on SEN Radio.
“I expect it to be a fine.”
Port Adelaide appealed the decision, arguing the contact was careless not intentional.
Butters argued he and Green were involved in a “mutual bump” and “mutual push” while disagreeing it was a strike, claiming he tried to push the chest area of his rival.
The AFL disputed this, arguing it was a clear decision to strike.
The Tribunal ruled in favour of Port Adelaide, stating it was not more than negligible impact, with Butters now free to play against Brisbane and still in the hunt for the Brownlow Medal.