{"id":25093,"date":"2026-06-05T01:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25093\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T01:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T01:43:18","slug":"port-adelaide-star-jason-horne-francis-responds-to-unbelievable-18m-zak-butters-rumour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25093\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide star Jason Horne-Francis responds to \u2018unbelievable\u2019 $18m Zak Butters rumour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Horne-Francis has shared his surprise that Richmond<\/a> have emerged as the apparent frontrunners for Port Adelaide<\/a> teammate and star free agent Zak Butters.<\/p>\n

Butters\u2019 contract is the hottest trade topic of the AFL<\/a> season with the superstar midfielder weighing up whether to stick it out with the Power or return home to Victoria to be closer to family.<\/p>\n

The Western Bulldogs have long been interested, with captain Marcus Bontempelli leading the charge, while Essendon and Geelong also offer bases somewhat closer to his home in Darley outside Bacchus Marsh.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what stuck out to Horne-Francis when Triple M\u2019s Chris Dittmar reported the Tigers are the \u201cabsolute frontrunner\u201d as things stand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a deal on the table now for $18 million over eight years,\u201d Dittmar said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Horne-Francis on Friday revealed he had heard the report and still remained shocked \u2014 but not by the dollar figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised that Richmond would be the frontrunner,\u201d he said on 104.7 Triple M.<\/p>\n

Co-host and Crows great Mark Ricciuto asked: \u201cWhat have you heard?\u201d<\/p>\n

Horne-Francis backtracked slightly to suggest he was not privy to any particular information but it still proved a telling answer, with Port players clearly well aware of, and perhaps anticipating, the pull home for Butters.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, just like with the clubs that are closer to whereabouts he lives,\u201d Horne-Francis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought they\u2019d maybe be a little bit closer (in the race) \u2014 but hopefully Port are the frontrunners at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide\u2019s mixed form this season has not helped their cause with a four-match losing streak dropping Josh Carr\u2019s side to 16th on the ladder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not ruling out Port Adelaide, it\u2019s (the Richmond contract) just the biggest offer on the table right now,\u201d Dittmar said.<\/p>\n

Ricciuto incredibly declared Butters is out the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am (ruling him out). Yep,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reckon he\u2019s going home, because he wants to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horne-Francis chimed in: \u201cI\u2019d like to know where Ditts got his mail too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dittmar replied: \u201cI\u2019ll tell you one day when it comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest rumour arrived after North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson popped up in Adelaide last week and confirmed his club\u2019s interest in signing Horne-Francis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are 17 clubs interested in Zak Butters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working hard to get better as a footy club and hopefully our form improves a little bit more in the second half of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago Butters said he is closing in on making a decision on his future. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a big decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think about everything … there\u2019s emotion attached to it, definitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what the decision is, it\u2019s going to be a pretty emotional one from my end, no matter what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cyril Rioli pulling on boots again in shock signing with Vic club <\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Scott caught up in ugly situation: \u2018Don\u2019t want to do it\u2019<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Horne-Francis has shared his surprise that Richmond have emerged as the apparent frontrunners for Port Adelaide teammate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,77,15273,4274,1420,261],"class_list":["post-25093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-afl","tag-afl-trades","tag-port-adelaide-football-club","tag-richmond-tigers","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}