Port Adelaide vice-captain Zak Butters says he will again crash through the pain barrier while warning Sydney he is well placed to cope with a hard tag in their preliminary final.
Butters was substituted from Port’s qualifying loss to Geelong because of a sore ribs but played with the injury in their semi-final win against Hawthorn.
The dual All Australian was kept out of contact drills at Port’s training on Tuesday at Alberton Oval but downplayed his injury.
“I got another training session under the belt today, and a really good one by the boys again,” Butters told reporters.
“I was able to get through and definitely tick some more boxes and get some more confidence in my body.
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“If you look across the league at this time of the year … a few players we have (are) on modified training a bit.
“It’s a long season, a lot of games of footy, so you just have to do whatever you can just make sure by the time Friday night rolls around I am ready to go.
“I still like to attack it and still push myself.”
Butters was in “a little bit of pain” in Port’s thrilling three-point semi-final win against the Hawks.
“But I feel like I’m in pain most weekends and so nothing new there,” he said.
“Footy is a demanding sport. There’s plenty of other players going through some other injuries … and they’re getting up and playing key roles for their teams.”
Butters was already preparing for a potential match-up against Sydney clamp James Jordon, who has performed tagging jobs with aplomb this season.
“He’s a pretty hard player to play against,” Butters said.
“Whether he comes to me or Hornet (Jason Horne-Francis) or Connor (Rozee), I feel like there’s a few in there he could go to at different stages.
“As a team we … have looked at that already and that’s something that we’ll be expecting so if they choose to do that, we’ll be ready.”
Butters’ output dropped amid close tagging earlier in the season but said he was now better equipped to cope after advice from Brisbane’s dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, arguably the most tagged player in the competition.
“To see Lachie Neale deal with it again on the weekend, he’s the one I’ve looked up to throughout the year and probably the last three or four years — he deals with it most weeks more than most,” Butters said.
“I have had a few little chats with him over time and he’s given me some good advice.
“So I feel like I’ve got some good plans in place and some good people in my corner to help me out.
“But at the end of the day it’s up to me to beat them and for me to go there and compete and fight hard and help my team win.”
AAP
