Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr slams Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly over Zak Butters comments, Daniel Giansiracusa in the race to be Carlton coach, Geelong coach Chris Scott questions 24-7 free kick count in Magpies’ favour, latest news, highlights

Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr has fired back with a brutal return serve at Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly over a Zak Butters claim.

Meanwhile, a Carlton coaching candidate previously thought out of the hunt has surged back into contention. Read on in AFL Daily!

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‘ARROGANT, DISRESPECTFUL’: PIES CEO SLAMMED OVER BUTTERS COMMENT

Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr has described Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly’s claim that Zak Butters is “heading back to Melbourne” as “arrogant” and “disrespectful”.

The hottest trade story of the season, Butters, who is sidelined with an ankle injury, is yet to publicly confirm where he will play in 2027.

It has been widely reported that he will head back to Victoria as a restricted free agent, with the Magpies, the Western Bulldogs, Richmond and Geelong engaging in a four-way battle to secure his services.

In an interview with ABC Sport before their loss to the Cats on Thursday night, Kelly spruiked the Pies’ chances of securing the coup.

“We’re keen to talk to any free agents and any people that want to move back to Victoria or are interested in moving clubs,” Kelly said.

“So, look, we’d be negligent not to be [helping Magpies list manager] Justin Leppitsch in his team, with support from both the board and ourselves, talking to anyone, and Zak’s definitely one of those players.

“He’s a great player, a great person, and he’s coming back to Victoria and we’d like him to consider our club.”

Speaking to media on Friday morning, Carr wasn’t impressed.

“The arrogance of certain football clubs – like Collingwood in particular,” the Power coach said.

“He’s [Kelly] a leader of their football club. If that’s the way that they want to lead …

“As I’ve said, it’s not us, it’s not who we are as a football club, it’s not the way we carry ourselves.

“We’re a football club that respects everyone in the competition and don’t put ourselves above anyone. I feel like that’s not the same at every football club.

“It’s disrespectful to the competition, I think. It’s disrespectful to Zak, in particular.

“I’m sure he would be disappointed in those comments, just throw it out there like you know what’s going on.

“It’s not who we are, it’s not who I am. I think we’re better than that.”

Kelly also said the lure of playing in front of sizeable crowds would be front and centre in the Magpies’ pitch to Butters.

“The reason why he’d come to Collingwood is that firstly, you’ve got to want to play in front of a big crowd,” he said.

“You want to enjoy the way the club presents itself and is consistently at the pointy end of the competition and has for hundreds of years. We’re not going backwards and we want to stay in that position.

“You come here because you’re playing at the ‘G and we’re playing in finals, and we look after and we care for family and we care for our fans, and we care for making sure that you have a long term, we’ve got the best past players program in the competition.

“So if you want to make sure that you’ve got security long term and you’ve got jobs and opportunities, that’s what we’ll give you.”

SHOCK BACKFLIP IN BLUES COACH CANDIDATE’S CHANCES

A new addition to Carlton’s shortlist for its next senior coach has added a late complication to the club’s process.

It was reported earlier in the week that respected assistant coaches James Kelly (Geelong), Jaymie Graham (Fremantle) and Corey Enright (St Kilda) remained in the running for the job, with the Blues whittling down their list of candidates.

Josh Fraser claimed on Thursday he was still undecided about whether or not to apply after a successful stint as caretaker following Michael Voss’ resignation in May, with football boss Chris Davies giving him “the next week or so” to make his mind up.

However, that group has now been joined by Hawthorn assistant Daniel Giansiracusa, who remains in the mix despite a belief he had fallen out of the race.

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SEN’s Sam Edmund reported on Friday morning that the former Western Bulldogs forward, who joined the Hawks as head of development ahead of the 2026 season to further his senior coaching aspirations, is among the top candidates.

“Gia remains a chance, a real chance, to become Carlton’s next coach,” Edmund told Fireball.

“The race for the Blues top job is actually more contested than has been reported.

“Gia’s advanced to the final stage of the process, despite being widely considered to have missed out.

“He’s soon going to formally present to Carlton’s coaching selection committee as one of at least four remaining candidates. That will become five if Josh Fraser accepts the Blues’ invite to run for the position.

“It had been reported as a final four – it could be a final five.”

Giansiracusa, who has previously served as an assistant at the Bulldogs and Essendon, narrowly missed out to Voss when the Blues sought to replace David Teague as coach in late 2021.

Of the other candidates, Graham is also heavily in the mix as the Bombers search for a new coach of their own; while Kelly and Enright have publicly prioritised the Blues’ role.

‘VERY STRANGE’: SCOTT REACTS TO SEASON-LOW FREE KICK STAT

Geelong coach Chris Scott has questioned the “very strange” free kick count in his side’s crucial Thursday night win over Collingwood.

The Cats kicked eight of the first nine goals to open up a 49-point lead at the MCG, before withstanding a late Magpies comeback to win by 25 points and move back into the top six.

But attention quickly turned to an unusually one-sided run of free kicks paid to the Pies, who eventually won the count 24-7.

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The differential of 17 is the biggest of any game in 2026, while the Cats’ seven frees is the lowest any club has received this season.

“I wouldn’t focus too much on the 24 part – the 7 part’s very strange,” the two-time premiership coach said of the free kick count.

“We’ve had a few games like that this year – if it’s kind of 7-12, it’s like ‘OK, it’s just a put the whistle away night’. But I think there’s a few things that I would describe as strange at the moment.

“I think we’ve been here before, haven’t we? It’s not the forum to be discussing these things, but that’s not to say that it shouldn’t be discussed.”

Scott flagged the Cats wouldn’t broach the topic with the AFL, but would take steps to ensure the club’s coaching staff are adequately explaining the current interpretation of league rules to their players.

“The confusing parts arise when you think you understand the rules really well, explain it in great detail to the players, and then you don’t see it play out that way,” he said.

“That’s the part that we need to straighten out, that’s really our only role.

“I think at some point it’s good for the people in charge of the AFL to consult broadly, especially the people that understand the game really well, which tend to be the coaches.

“It’s all-consuming, you watch the game really closely and we spend a lot of time on it.

“We’ll get some consulted at some point, give our input. I would imagine that part of that input would be you just hope that the people who are in charge of that [umpiring] are spending enough time on it.”

Scott pointed at rules regarding holding the man in the marking contest as having definitely undergone a “shift” in recent weeks, and said he would make that message clear to Cats players.

“It’s really important that you adjust with that and sort of double down on what are the cues, what are they looking for, are you giving them a reason to pay these free kicks,” he said.

“The other side is there’s ways to work it to your advantage as well, but it’s not as if we’re spending hours on it.”

Scott conceded that Cats tagger Oisin Mullin went “pretty close” to the line in his negating tactics on Magpies star Nick Daicos, particularly around stoppages.

But he called for holding rules to remain consistent regardless of where they occur.

“Holding in the marking contest should be the same as a ruck contest, which should be the same as a ground-level contest,” he said.

“And I think we all know that, intuitively, that’s probably not the way it’s interpreted. But you can’t be a sucker, you can’t say well we’re playing exactly to the rules and the opposition aren’t and they’re not getting penalised.

“I push back on the people that say there’s a rule of the week and the umpires have changed – they should change. Exactly the same way that we change, they’ve got to move a little.

“The difficult part for them is if we have concentrated on something, do we communicate it.”

The 50-year old also aired a grievance with a spate of overruled umpire calls throughout 2026, with non-officiating umpires regularly superseding close-in colleagues to pay free kicks.

“All the people in Geelong shirts here are really nervous at the moment,” he laughed.

“They’re starting to get sweaty palms, because they don’t know what I’m going to say!

“But I will bring up one issue that’s confusing for everyone, when you have an umpire 12 metres away with a perfect view and he gets overruled, that’s strange.”

Fox Footy commentator and former two-time All Australian Leigh Montagna conceded Scott “had a fair point” with his criticism.

“It did feel in that second half in particular, a lot of 50-50 calls going Collingwood’s way,” he said.

“Clearly frustrated – I think a lot of people watching were also a bit surprised.”