Greene’s phone call to Butters as contract talk escalates

Amid relentless speculation on both of their futures, Toby Greene has revealed he called Zak Butters to discuss the options on the table with Geelong a possible destination for them both.

After 15 years at the Giants, expectation is that Greene will finish his career back in Victoria with the lure of being surrounded by family and friends strong – not to mention the draw of the Cats.

Greene joining Geelong has been gathering momentum for weeks and the 32-year-old is not shying away from the fact he has had talks with the club as well as Butters.

“I’ve had a busy week and there’s a fair bit of thinking coming up, I’m wrestling with the decision,” Greene told SEN’s Fireball.

“It’s something I have to work out with the family.

“The factor of coming home to Vic is family, if we want to have more kids that makes life easier. I love the Giants, I put all my time and effort in there for 15 years, that’s what I wrestle with at the moment.

“All the contacts are pretty similar so that’s not really a factor in the decision.

“With Geelong I’ve had an open discussion, I told them what I think about and what I wrestle with and they then explained what it would look like for me. Geelong would be a lot less travel and more time for family.

“They discuss aspects of the role and how it would look in the team.

“It looks different at different options.

“I asked (about Butters) it’s important. I spoke to Zak as well and it’s something I will do again in the next few days, he adds a bit of wight to that decision.

“I wanted to see where his head was at, the things he values highly in his decision. That’s what I asked him.”

Butters has indicated being in a similar scenario to Greene, wrestling between two clubs (Bulldogs and Geelong) with the midfielder expected to lock in a deal worth $18 million across nine years.