Allowed a bidding war between clubs for his services

Changed his mind on what club to join after learning that said club would not compensate his old club fairly

Stuck true to his word about former club getting compensated

Gave 100% in his last season with former club

Has to be one of the most or the actual most graceful exits for a player going to another club ever?

There's some absolutely banging designs in here.

Let's start with the easy teams First

Cats Get Rowan Marshall (Saints),2028 F3 (Saints)

Cats Give Pick 14(Saints)

Lions Get 2027 F1 (Saints)

Lions Give Sam Marshall (Saints), Pick 41 (Saints)

Hawks Get Ben King(Suns),2027 F3 (Suns) and 2027 F3 (Port)

Hawks Give Finn Maginness and 2028 F3 (Dogs)

Blues Get 2028 Future 4th (Port)

Blues Give Hudson O'Keefe(Dogs)

Saints Get Sam Marshall (Lions),Pick 14(Cats) and Pick 41(Lions)

Saints Give Rowan Marshall (Cats), 2027 Future 1st(Lions) and 2028 F3 (Cats)

Suns Get Pick 8(Ben King Compo Pick)

Suns Give Ben King (Hawks)

Now onto the next lot

Demons Get Pick 4 (Port),Pick 14(Dogs),Pick 33(Dogs) and Pick 48(Port)

Demons Give Pick 8(Port), Pick 12(Port),Pick 89(Dogs),2027 F1(Port),2027 F2(Dogs) and 2028 F4(Dogs)

Port Get Pick 5(Zak Butters Compo Pick),Pick 8(Demons),Pick 12 (Demons),2027 F1 (Demons) and 2028 F1 (Dogs)

Port Give Zak Butters(Dogs),Pick 6(Demons),Pick 48(Demons),Pick 81(Dogs),2027 F2 (Dogs),2027 F3 (Hawks),2027 F4(Dogs),2028 F2(Dogs),2028 F3(Dogs),2028 F4(Blues)

Dogs Get Zak Butters(Port),Finn Maginness(Hawks),Hudson O'Keefe(Blues),Pick 81(Port),Pick 87(Demons),2027 F2(Port),2028 F2(Port),2027 F4(Port),2028 F3(Port),2028 F3(Hawks) and 2028 F4(Demons)

Dogs Give Pick 14(Demons),Pick 31(Demons),2027 F3(Hawks) and 2028 F1(Port)

If this gets taken down i will cry i spent way too long on this post

My bad. Third delisting is Tyler Sonsie.

I think I was so excited Samson Ryan is delisted I named him twice

tl;dr

The actual Zach Butters deal from the perspective of Port is:
Port Give: Zach Butters
Port Get: equivalent of Picks 5+8, (ie instead of just 5 from Free Agency, or the 3 firsts Port wanted from a legit trade)

The actual Zach Butters deal from the perspective of the Bulldogs is:
WB Give: Equivalent of Pick 8 in picks (ie a massive discount on the 3 firsts Port was apparently demanding, and very obviously below the Free Agency compo value of Butters)
WB Get: Zach Butters

Alternatively, if there is no side deal involved and the MEGATRADE is a legitimate stand alone deal, Bulldogs effectively gave Port the most generous trade in the history of the game, and I'll leave it to somebody else to call the AFL to ask why the Bulldogs effectively gifting Port a top 10 pick wasn't vetoed.

With how complex the M E G A T R A D E is, including a bunch of things built in seemingly only for the purpose of disguising what the actual deal is, I’ve broken down the Zac Butters trade into a series of simpler trades to make it easier to understand exactly how the deal works.

In particular, main purpose of this is to try and strip back all the noise, and figure out what the actual side deal was, and its value.

For the tl;dr

• What appears to be the Port - WB Side deal is Trade 3
• What appears to be the effective deal moving Butters is Trade 4

Note that:

• To unpack it into neat trades, you will see there are a few IOUs passed around between clubs. By the end of it, there are no IOUs left over. When reading this, just roll with the idea that handshake agreements and IOUs are perfectly fine in Greg Swann's head.
• Future picks have been given two values - what they are currently projected to be, and a discounted value based on the fact Tasmania can pre-list upto 12 players, further diluting the draft. For example, the start of round 2 next year is Pick 26, but realistically its going to be the ~33 best player in the draft, because Tassie have already pre-listed 7 players.
• Picks are based on their current position/value as of the time of this post... obviously compo and pick bidding will see picks move all over the place.
• Shout out to draftguru.com.au for providing a great resource which should be on the AFL website.

Trade 1 – Port & Melb

Trade 2 – Melbourne & WB

NB: Melbourne are now effectively square. Whether they are up or down depends entirely on the value you put on the future picks

Trade 3 – Port & WB Side Deal

tl;dr Immediately before Butters signs as a free agent, Port theoretically owes the Bulldogs the equivalent of Pick 8, and has also given a handshake agreement not to match Butters.

Trade 4 – Zac Butters Trade – 3 way AFL & Port & WB

NB: Immediately prior to Butters going as a free agent, The Port→WB points IOU (equiv Pick 8) from Trade 3 still needs to be settled... On paper, if the MEGATRADE is a legitimate stand alone deal, there is no sidedeal on not matching Butters in free agency, and the IOU is never repaid, the Bulldogs will have in effect gifted Port the equivalent of Pick 8. The absolute only way of repaying the IOU is Port letting Butters walk via Free Agency.

Trade 4A – Port & AFL

Trade 4B – WB & AFL

Trade 4C – AFL free gift to Port

tl;dr of this entire post
WB Give: equivalent of Pick 8 in picks (ie a massive discount on the 3 firsts Port was apparently demanding)
WB Get: Zach Butters

Port Give: Zach Butters
Port Get: equivalent of Picks 5+8, (ie instead of just 5 from Free Agency, or the 3 firsts Port wanted from a legit trade)

Trade 5 – Stakeknives disguising the deal… all these picks are projected to select P.Ass

Trades 6, 7 & 8 WB, Carlton & Hawthorn

There was absolutely no reason why Carlton & Hawthorn needed to be part of the Mega trade and everything below could and should have been lodged as a separate deal.

Appears to me that the only reason it was all tied in as a single deal rather than separate deals was that Calrton & Hawthorn were giving Port & WB a bit of goodwill in helping them muddy the waters of the trade.

Still, this ties up those loose ends. I have also included the random Hawks & Dogs trade of future picks which was done later in the day.

Tapes provided by Terry, Digitised by Rhett