He's a freak: Butters laps up tough battle with Reid

Butters won his battle against tagger Brady Hough on the way to 27 disposals and seven clearances, while Reid (25 disposals, seven clearances) came alive in the final quarter with seven possessions and four clearances to almost drag West Coast over the line.

While not matched up on each other for large parts of the match, Reid and Butters made their interactions count.

Reid played it friendly at first, offering Butters a helping hand on the quarter-time siren after the stand-in Port skipper had fallen to the turf.

Butters swiftly rejected Reid's advances, much to the displeasure of the star Eagle.

There were several spot fires from there - the biggest coming in the third quarter when Reid physically got stuck into Butters after the Port midfielder threw his head back in a bid to gain a free kick. 

"I love it," Carr said of the battle.

"I think all footy people love to see a good contest and good players being super competitive, fair, tough.

"Both of them displayed all of that in the game, and both had their highlights through the game."

Butters also relished the contest against a player who earlier in the year cheekily suggested he should join him at West Coast.

"He's a freak and we always go at it in the middle," Butters told Fox Sports.

"He's going to be a superstar of the competition for a long time to come, and you love going up against tough players, and he's one of them."

Butters is out of contract at the end of the season and is already attracting huge offers from a host of Victorian clubs.

Richmond have reportedly tabled Butters an offer in the vicinity of $18 million over eight years, while the Western Bulldogs, Geelong and Collingwood are others keen to lure the 25-year-old their way.

Carr praised Butters' efforts to deal with the Hough tag, saying: "I thought he played a really good team role when it came to getting tagged, and how he can help out his teammates," Carr said. 

"He gets it every week, so it doesn't really change too much. 

"He's used to it now, and knows how to work through his plan with what that looks like when he gets the tag."

Port will be aiming to make it two wins in a row when they take on Sydney at Adelaide Oval next Saturday.