The fact is, he was always going to make St Kilda better.
Yes, but I believe only at playing a St Kilda type of game, and quite frankly that game just doesn't deliver in big games.
Player accountability at St Kilda stops at making sure they have paid their social club bar tab at the end of each month.
I know that sounds frivolous, but Butler always had the skills and the pace to make an impact at AFL level. He played in a flag for us playing a disciplined niche role in an atypical forward line that pretty much defied standard AFL thinking on what was required to win a flag.
I have never felt that Butler fell out of best 22 contention due to injury or other players going past him skill wise. The team around him subtly evolved and he basically couldn't adapt quickly enough. He wasn't really a one trick pony though, it was just that the team moved on and what Butts brought to the table didn't seem to fit anymore.
There is no doubt that the club would have felt we had the players to cover Butts when we let him go. We clearly didn't have to trade him if we didn't want to, and I think at the end of the day he probably would have been happy to stay for another year or two.
If he had stayed, he may have been able to recover his spot as best 22. But the club did have other options that I guess they felt were going to help us move further forward, I think evidenced now by the fact we have won two more flags since. Don't forget that Balmey came out and suggested that Dan should look at other options.
And in the end St Kilda was the only suitor after Carlton and Hawthorn cooled on him. So I don't think anyone can say we didn't get unders for him in terms of the draft pick, but I think that, as harsh as it seems, that was never seen as the payoff for the trade by Richmond. Opening up an opportunity for someone else on our list was.
I have no clear evidence to support this, but I have in recent times felt that Butler moving on opened the spot for Liam Baker. Baker's rise seemed to follow the trajectory of Butler's decline, if you could call it that. Maybe I just feel this way because Baker took over Butler's No.7 when Dan left.
Which brings me back to the St Kilda bit. Butts had a great year last year playing in a team that really suited his game, and gave him the freedom to play that way week in week out. But Butler will not help them get to a flag because I just don't see the discipline in them, and haven't for a long time (the possible exception being during Ross Lyon's coaching tenure there).
St Kilda obviously do have their moments, don't get me wrong, but I think there is a reason they always seems to stumble in the really big games. And it comes down to a lack of accountability for the opposition from players in crucial moments. They are great front runners when things are going well, but when players need to step up, they seem to always lack enough players to do so. They free wheel with the best of them, but when a change of gears is required, they lack the teeth to grind.
So the bottom line for me is that I just can't see Butts winning a flag at St Kilda, but I can see him looking like a superstar for them and in turn making them look like a much better team.