The Zak Butters incident has shone a terrible light on the AFL as a whole

Zak Butters has received a $1500 fine after his visit to the tribunal after his alleged abuse of umpire Nick Foot. In a league obsessed with optics that has spent previous seasons suspending and fining anyone who brings any kind of poor look to the sport somehow the AFL and the umpires association has come off looking far worse in the eyes of the public after this incident. Port Adelaide will be appealing the decision in the coming weeks as they believe their star player has been seriously misrepresented by this incident.

The tribunal meeting was a case of he said he said as there was no evidence of the incident due to the umpires microphone not picking up anything said by Butters. The AFL has chosen to believe the word of umpire Foot over Butters in this decision. Foot’s and the AFL’s integrity have been called into question by the public due to Foot’s employment at SportsBet which many see as a conflict of interest. Personally its a no brainer that receiving payment or being involved with a betting company whilst umpiring the biggest sport in the nation is a conflict of interest but after personal investigation the AFL has cleared this relationship and will allow it to continue as will they allow Foot to continue umpiring Port Adelaide matches. This has obviously not been received well by the public.

The tribunals integrity has also been called into doubt by many in the media and the public as member Jason Johnson attended the meeting via zoom call whilst driving his car, a punishable offence in Victoria.

It seems there is a long way to go until the conclusion of this saga but as it stands the AFL, its tribunal and the umpiring association are currently seen as extremely suspect in the eyes of the public.