Port Adelaide vice-captain Zak Butters has been cleared of an umpire abuse charge after it emerged an AFL Tribunal panel member disconnected from last week's hearing and switched to his phone while driving to a real estate open for inspection.
The AFL Appeal Board ruled the conduct a "miscarriage of justice".
What happened
The Tribunal fined Butters $1,500 last Tuesday for allegedly telling umpire Nick Foot, "How much are they paying you?" during Port Adelaide’s round five loss to St Kilda.
Butters denied making the comment, with teammate Ollie Wines and Port Adelaide’s general manager of football Ben Rutten both giving evidence in his support.
Port Adelaide formally appealed the verdict.
Why was it overturned?
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The appeal focused on the conduct of Tribunal panel member Jason Johnson. The former Essendon premiership player turned real estate agent disconnected from the online hearing partway through and switched to his phone while driving to an open for inspection.
Port's lawyer Paul Ehrlich KC argued Johnson could not have been paying proper attention while behind the wheel during final submissions, and the Appeal Board agreed after 14 minutes of deliberation. The hearing had its own distractions too, with Ehrlich forced to apologise on several occasions after his dog wandered into his home office and began barking mid-argument.
Response
The AFL confirmed it would not seek a re-trial, and has since apologised to both Butters and Foot.
While reiterating its “strong support for the AFL tribunal,” the league said it will "reflect on the reasons of the Appeal Board and learnings from tonight's outcome".
Port Adelaide welcomed the result but “maintains its position that the Tribunal process needs to be reviewed”. Last week, club CEO Matthew Richardson described the system as "too legalistic" and "too adversarial".
