Dan Butler (Australian footballer)

Dan Butler
Butler playing for Richmond in June 2017
Personal information
Full name Daniel Butler
Date of birth (1996-06-03) 3 June 1996
Original team(s) North Ballarat Rebels (TAC Cup)
Draft No. 67, 2014 AFL national draft: Richmond
Debut Round 1, 2017, Richmond
vs. Carlton, at MCG
Height 182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 80 kg (176 lb)
Position(s) Forward
Club information
Current club Richmond
Number 7
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2015– Richmond 38 (48)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of the 2018 season.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Daniel Butler (born 3 June 1996) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He became a premiership player with the club in 2017, his debut season at AFL level.

Junior football

Butler spent his formative years playing football for a team in Lake Wendouree, a suburb of the Victorian country town of Ballarat.[1]

In 2014 He played TAC Cup football with the North Ballarat Rebels, kicking nine goals in 13 matches while playing predominately as an outside midfielder. In one match he recorded an impressive 17 tackles against Oakleigh.[2] He also played one senior match with the North Ballarat Roosters in the VFL and represented Victoria's Country team at the 2014 AFL Under 18 Championships.[1]

He attended secondary school at St Patrick's College in Ballarat.[3]

AFL career

Butler was drafted by Richmond with the club's fourth pick and the 67th overall in the 2014 national draft.[4]

He did not play a senior match in his first year at the club, sidelined due to a serious knee injury.[5] He played his first match for the club in a reserves match in round 15 of the VFL season, where he remained until the end of the year.[6]

In 2016 he was again looked over, one of just two senior listed players at the club not to play a senior match that season (along with Chris Yarran).[7] In fact, in a mid-year meeting with coaching staff he was informed he would not offered a contract for the following year without a vast improvement in effort and output.[8] In time his VFL performances improved including Butler becoming the team's top tackler in the season's closing months.[8] He ultimately earned another one-year contract for 2017.[9]

Following an impressive pre-season Butler made his AFL debut in round 1, 2017 against Carlton in the season opener at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.[8][10] He finished the game with nineteen disposals, two goals and was named among Richmond's best by journalists at Fairfax and AFL Media.[11][12] He was again named in the club's best in round 3, this time kicking two goals to go with 17 disposals.[13] Butler's early performances, along with forward-line companions Jason Castagna and Daniel Rioli, played a key role in Richmond's five game unbeaten start to the season.[14] After five rounds the small-forward trio had combined for 23 goals (Butler with seven) and 44 tackles (16 for Butler).[14] After eight consecutive games played, Butler was ruled out from the club's round 9 clash with Greater Western Sydney with a groin injury.[15] He returned to football in round 11, kicking two goals in his side's victory over North Melbourne.[16] For his performance he received the round 11 nomination for the 2017 AFL Rising Star award.[17] He bested that output in round 14 though, turning in a career best three goals in a win over Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.[18] He received a Goal of the Week nomination for one of those, involving a 70-metre run through the centre square evading multiple opponents before scoring from 40 metres out.[19] He would record three goal hauls on two more occasions that season, in round 17 against Brisbane and in a 104-point demolition of Fremantle in round 22.[20][21] When September came Butler continued his contributions to Richmond's forward line, kicking one goal in a winning qualifying final against Geelong and two more against the GWS Giants in a preliminary final victory a fortnight later.[22][23] He became a premiership player seven days later, when he kicked a sealing goal in the fourth quarter of Richmond's 48 point Grand Final victory over Adelaide.[24] In addition to his premiership honours, Butler received the 2017 Cosgrove-Jenkins award as the club's best debutant player as well as placing equal-eighth overall in the club's best and fairest award.[25][26] Butler also earned a nomination to the 40-man squad, but ultimately went unselected in the final team of the AFL Players' Association's 22 Under 22 team which recognises the best young players in the league.[27]

Butler remains contracted to Richmond until at least the end of the 2019 season.[28]

Statistics

Statistics are correct to the end of the 2018 season[20]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
Season Team No. Games G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
Totals Averages (per game)
2015 Richmond 400——————————————
2016 Richmond 400——————————————
2017 Richmond 4023301515910226141831.30.76.94.411.31.83.6
2018 Richmond 71518101116117234501.20.77.44.111.52.33.3
Career 38 48 25 270 163 433 75 133 1.3 0.7 7.1 4.3 11.4 2.0 3.5

Honours and achievements

Team

Individual

Personal life

Butler finds hobbies in surfing and table tennis, the later of which lead him to a year-long competition with house and teammate Jason Castagna that resulted in the loser Castagna getting a tattoo of a table tennis bat with Buter's initials on this upper thigh.[29][30]

References

  1. 1 2 "10 things about Dan Butler". Richmond Fc. Bigpond. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  2. ↑ "2014 Draft Profile: Daniel Butler". AFL Draft Central. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  3. ↑ "Out of the Draft: Dan Butler". Richmond FC. Bigpond. 19 November 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  4. ↑ "2014 Draft, pick 67: Daniel Butler". RichmondFC.com.au. Bigpond. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  5. ↑ "Hungry Butler". Richmond FC. Bigpond. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  6. ↑ "Round 15 VFL squad: Young talent on display". Richmond FC. Bigpond. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Paton, Al (26 August 2016). "Richmond has used more players this season than any other club". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 Clark, Jay (29 September 2017). "Dan Butler's journey to Richmond Grand Final player started in the barber's chair". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  9. ↑ Navaratnam, Dinny (9 November 2016). "Tigers trio sign new one-year deals". AFL Media. Telstra Media. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  10. ↑ "Persistence pays for Richmond's Dan Butler". The Courier. Fairfax Media. 20 March 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  11. ↑ Cherny, Daniel (23 March 2017). "Carlton v Richmond: Dustin Martin steers Tigers to safety at MCG". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  12. ↑ "Carlton vs Richmond". AFL.com.au. AFL Media. 23 March 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  13. ↑ Bowen, Nick (8 April 2017). "Richmond Vs West Coast". AFL.com.au. AFL Media. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  14. 1 2 Lerner, Ronny (28 April 2017). "Damien Hardwick says small forwards are becoming the most important players". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  15. ↑ "Richmond Tigers regain Dion Prestia, lose Dan Butler for GWS clash". The Age. Fairfax Media. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  16. ↑ "Round 11 2017, North Melbourne v Richmond". AFL Tables. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  17. ↑ McGowan, Marc (5 June 2017). "Tiger inks his name as latest Rising Star". Telstra. AFL.com.au. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  18. ↑ Gaskin, Lee (1 July 2017). "Match report: Tigers stake top-four claim". AFL Media. Telstra Media. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  19. ↑ "Mark and Goal of the Week: R15". AFL Media. Telstra Media. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  20. 1 2 "Dan Butler's statistics". AFL Tables. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  21. ↑ Quartermain, Braden (20 August 2017). "Richmond underline finals and top four credentials with 104-point demolition of Fremantle". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  22. ↑ McGarry, Andrew (9 September 2017). "Richmond demolishes Geelong by 51 points at the MCG to reach the preliminary final". ABCNews. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  23. ↑ "Richmond beats GWS by 36 points to reach AFL grand final for first time since 1982". ACBNews. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 23 September 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  24. ↑ Wilson, Caroline (30 September 2017). "AFL grand final 2017: Tears of the Tigers faithful as their heroes triumph". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  25. ↑ "Grimes grabs Francis Bourke Award". Richmond FC. Telstra Media. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  26. ↑ Greenberg, Tony (2 October 2017). "Dusty's brilliant back-to-back Jack win". Richmond FC. Telstra Media. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  27. ↑ Beveridge, Riley (22 August 2017). "The AFLPA releases 40-man 22under22 squad for 2017". Fox Sports. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  28. ↑ Cavanagh, Chris (23 August 2017). "Richmond re-sign Kane Lambert and Dan Butler after playing key roles in Tigers' rise". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  29. ↑ Gleeson, Michael (22 July 2017). "Same spot: Dan Butler and Jason Castagna are in line with each other". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  30. ↑ Laughton, Max (29 May 2017). "AFL Confidential: Jason Castagna loses bet to Dan Butler and gets tattoo, Hawks joke about contract talks". Fox Sports. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
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