The AFL has taken the extraordinary step of apologising to Zak Butters and Port Adelaide after the league's appeals board dismissed a tribunal ban handed to the 2023 Brownlow medallist for umpire abuse, with the original verdict torn up on the back of juror misconduct.
Butters had been suspended by the AFL Tribunal last week after an incident during Port Adelaide's narrow loss to Hawthorn in Round 6, one of the weekend's most chaotic match-ups, which produced multiple match review charges across both sides. The Power immediately flagged an appeal, and the appeals board convened within days to hear the case.
In a ruling delivered on Monday, the appeals board dismissed the tribunal's original verdict after finding the jury process had been compromised. The AFL confirmed in an official statement that juror misconduct had undermined the reliability of the ruling and that, as a result, the charge could not stand. 7NEWS reported that the appeals board's language effectively described the original ruling as a "miscarriage of justice," a description picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald's coverage of the hearing.
The league's apology — rare for the governing body in a tribunal matter — is likely to reignite debate about the structure of the AFL's disciplinary process, which has already been under pressure this season over inconsistent outcomes between the Match Review Officer, the Tribunal and the Appeals Board. Port Adelaide, which has publicly argued all week that Butters never should have faced a hearing, welcomed the decision and said it would now turn its attention to Anzac weekend.
For Butters, the decision has immediate competitive consequences. The Power midfielder was staring at a suspension that would have locked him out of the club's Anzac round assignment. Instead, he returns to a Port side that has lost as many games as it has won in the early rounds, but which remains a live finals chance provided it can stabilise around its midfield core.
The AFL said it would conduct an internal review of its tribunal procedures to prevent a repeat, though it offered no detail on what steps would follow. The apology, however, sets a notable precedent: for the first time in recent memory, the league has publicly conceded that its own disciplinary machinery made a consequential error — and it has paid a reputational price for it in front of a national audience heading into one of football's biggest weekends.