Zak Butters ran on to the Adelaide Oval like he always does: over-caffeinated eyes darting, that Ramsay Bolton face of his beaming. But there was an extra edge to this one. It would almost certainly be his last ever Showdown, and he was determined to make it a memorable one. Two and half hours later, he’d played one of the best games of his career, turned Adelaide inside-out and showed why he is the most sought-after footballer in the country.
From the moment he stood up to Max Gawn in his first AFL game, Butters has bowed to no one. “A competitive little prick,” Ken Hinkley once called him – presumably as a term of endearment – and the 23 Crows players who gave him an unfathomably wide berth would no doubt agree.
