The fans have spoken, and – by a considerable margin – Dan Butler is the Round 3 Dare Iced Coffee Sainter of the Round.
It was a bleak afternoon for the Saints on Saturday afternoon, but the new No. 16 stood tall in the 44-point defeat to emphasise his importance to the line-up.
Butler notched up 16 disposals (11 contested), four tackles and two of St Kilda’s five goals in an attempt to spark his side to life.
But the red, white and black weren’t able to ignite throughout the dreary day, and instead were left rattled by a slick Collingwood outfit.
The 24-year-old’s impact from his first three games as a Saint has been evident.
Butler leads his new club for tackles (18), tackles inside-50 (11), score involvements (17) and inside-50s (13) to go alongside his four goals.
18 tackles, 17 score involvements and 4 goals in his first 3 games.
— St Kilda FC (@stkildafc) June 21, 2020
Dan Butler, everyone ?? pic.twitter.com/CYbPj0tlqu
St Kilda will be hoping for much of the same when they face Butler’s former side next Saturday in the annual Maddie’s Match.
Two votes go to Jake Carlisle, who battled on despite being under siege for most of the afternoon.
The key defender spent most of the afternoon on Darcy Cameron (two disposals) and was a reliable hand down back when the Saints found themselves in danger.
Carlisle reeled in a game-high nine marks in the wet and was just one of three Saints to surpass the 20-disposal mark.
Rounding out this week’s outing was Ben Long, whose grit at the contest couldn’t be questioned.
The revamped defender (11 disposals, eight contested) fought hard in the embattled backline, and in one of the few highlights for the game, laid a crunching bump on Collingwood’s Taylor Adams.
St Kilda will look to make amends on Saturday afternoon against Richmond for the fifth iteration of Maddie’s Match.