Butters and Humphrey…imagine that.

Is young enough to be there for our next legitimate tilt, but he may not want to wait so long.

Would rather wait and hold out for Bont to declare his want to come to the Dees 😆

I just can’t see why he would have any desire to join us.

I like where we’re heading, especially culturally and that should help with the retention of our talented lot but I don’t see free agents joining us unless we are offering 30-40% above market price like the Saints which we absolutely should not be.

Locked and loaded at the Dogs I reckon

Imagine Butters and Humphreys come to us that would be such a coup!

Can't see it...but wow I reckon they'd both like the idea if the other came too.

Apparently we are after Zac Bailey too.

The 2 baileys would be nice 😍

Still want Humphrey but would happily pick the eyes out of gold coasts twos. Rogers and Walter high on the list for mine.

Butters is great on field but very pricey and will shape the rest of the list options.

Edited March 18Mar 18 by The end is nigh

Costs too much pick wise and salary wise.

Great footballer, but will command a massive fee which is something that makes it a no from me.

I agree about raiding the Gold Coast instead - Humphrey and Walter please.

I'm going not quite cold but tepid on Butters. He is a very good player but not a structural need. We should be circling like vultures over any unhappy youngish key defenders not getting a game or simply not liking their role.

Moneyballl is a thoroughly overworked cliche but Butters is not worth, say, $500,000 more than your typical $700,000 midfielder, and certainly not that much more than a $700k key defender would be worth to us.

On the other hand... getting a top calibre player without giving up the draft picks is highly valuable, so if somehow Port decide to not match whichever bid comes then it is a very different picture.

For example what would the cash/salary cap space value of three first round picks be? Hypothetically, if you could just trade salary cap space directly to acquire another club's first pick, what price would you set.

59 minutes ago, The end is nigh said:

Still want Humphrey but would happily pick the eyes out of gold coasts twos. Rogers and Walter high on the list

Would love to have a nibble at Walter, but I fear If King goes to the Pies, Walter will stay and if Pies can’t get King they’d settle for Walter

26 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Great footballer, but will command a massive fee which is something that makes it a no from me.

I agree about raiding the Gold Coast instead - Humphrey and Walter please.

They would be my targets. As great as Butters is, even if you could sell it to him, the salary will be eyewatering and reduce flexibility with cap space.

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

I'm going not quite cold but tepid on Butters. He is a very good player but not a structural need. We should be circling like vultures over any unhappy youngish key defenders not getting a game or simply not liking their role.

Moneyballl is a thoroughly overworked cliche but Butters is not worth, say, $500,000 more than your typical $700,000 midfielder, and certainly not that much more than a $700k key defender would be worth to us.

Jordan Butts is a FA and arguably not in the crows best side with Murray and Keane fit, a 3 year deal or 4 on a regulation wicket and i rkn u could tempt him without issue, he's a shep lad and his mates r all melbourne based

if the crows were to come for a sparrow say an SA lad himself its nearly a direct swap value wise

then u can trade for humphrey/jake rogers or go FA again with zac bailey or butters and fix multiple list holes in one window

Could be a waste of money

On 18/03/2026 at 22:26, Turner said:

Jordan Butts is a FA and arguably not in the crows best side with Murray and Keane fit, a 3 year deal or 4 on a regulation wicket and i rkn u could tempt him without issue, he's a shep lad and his mates r all melbourne based

if the crows were to come for a sparrow say an SA lad himself its nearly a direct swap value wise

then u can trade for humphrey/jake rogers or go FA again with zac bailey or butters and fix multiple list holes in one window

Sparrow is a free agent

We have a higher and better chance of getting one of the baileys

I think Bailey Humphries better suits our list demographic. He will be 22 in September, whereas Butters 26. Butters would be ideal if we were peaking, but we are a few years off that. Humpries will peak when our list does.

Given our current performance and that of Ports, we'd have to be seen in some favourable light with the Butters camp.

I know the talk is all about the Doggies, buti just cannot see how on earth they can afford this fella - i think its all talk to be honest.

I know many on here are huge into Humphries - and maybe that is a good second option - but for mine, a player like Butters when paired with Kozzy and one of Langford, Windsor, XL, Steele will be very very strong midfield composition. Not sure how much longer Gawn is expected to stay, but he'll play another year or two i reckon - especially if he gets a sniff that we are in with a bees willy of premiership contention.

We would need to put in a 7-8 year offer for Butters, possibly even 10 (he's 25 right now) somewhere in the $14-19M TCV ball park. Its a huge outlay - i know - but he'd effectively come to us for free as i doubt Port would be able to match that offer. As opposed to Humphries who'd cost us our first round picks for 2026... maybe we could go after both players?

With May off our books next year, TMac and Melksham likely retired. That will free up a fair bit of cap and given that our list is quite young now and we dont have much middle agers, i think we'll have a lot of cap space.

The trick will be to out manoeuvre Port who have said publicly they would match all contract offers for Zac. If they end up bottom 4, the will easily get a comp pick for Butters giving them a few top 10 picks for this years draft. It would obviously suck for them, but its beginning to be the norm now that star players leave for success.

1 hour ago, GS_1905 said:

Given our current performance and that of Ports, we'd have to be seen in some favourable light with the Butters camp.

I know the talk is all about the Doggies, buti just cannot see how on earth they can afford this fella - i think its all talk to be honest.

I know many on here are huge into Humphries - and maybe that is a good second option - but for mine, a player like Butters when paired with Kozzy and one of Langford, Windsor, XL, Steele will be very very strong midfield composition. Not sure how much longer Gawn is expected to stay, but he'll play another year or two i reckon - especially if he gets a sniff that we are in with a bees willy of premiership contention.

We would need to put in a 7-8 year offer for Butters, possibly even 10 (he's 25 right now) somewhere in the $14-19M TCV ball park. Its a huge outlay - i know - but he'd effectively come to us for free as i doubt Port would be able to match that offer. As opposed to Humphries who'd cost us our first round picks for 2026... maybe we could go after both players?

With May off our books next year, TMac and Melksham likely retired. That will free up a fair bit of cap and given that our list is quite young now and we dont have much middle agers, i think we'll have a lot of cap space.

The trick will be to out manoeuvre Port who have said publicly they would match all contract offers for Zac. If they end up bottom 4, the will easily get a comp pick for Butters giving them a few top 10 picks for this years draft. It would obviously suck for them, but its beginning to be the norm now that star players leave for success.

How do people still not understand free agency? Port can and will match any offer for Butters. If you want him you’ll be giving up at least 3 first rounders for him, nobody’s getting him “for free”.

35 minutes ago, Dee Boys said:

How do people still not understand free agency? Port can and will match any offer for Butters. If you want him you’ll be giving up at least 3 first rounders for him, nobody’s getting him “for free”.

exactly

2 2026 1sts + 1 2027 1sts is the bare minimum offering accepted and the pear will want them to be 'good' 1st round picks, given cochrane (indigenous academy, 2026), steve salopek's son and zemes pilot (f/s and academy, 2027) are going to cost them plenty

40 minutes ago, Dee Boys said:

How do people still not understand free agency? Port can and will match any offer for Butters. If you want him you’ll be giving up at least 3 first rounders for him, nobody’s getting him “for free”.

You seem confident they will match any offer.

3 minutes ago, Bowserpower said:

You seem confident they will match any offer.

they're going to need picks to select their nga, f/s selections over the next two years

their ceo, matt richardson, has already said that they're confident that they can match any bid that comes in from a financial standpoint

i can't see that changing

Just now, whatwhat say what said:

they're going to need picks to select their nga, f/s selections over the next two years

their ceo, matt richardson, has already said that they're confident that they can match any bid that comes in from a financial standpoint

i can't see that changing

Fair enough. If they are confident then good luck to them

2 minutes ago, Bowserpower said:

Fair enough. If they are confident then good luck to them

it all comes down to if butters wants to go where he wants to go

footscray and geelong are the early running favourites cos of their (relative) proximity to bacchus marsh