It was AFL Grand Final Day 2017. As Damien Hardwick celebrated the greatest moment of his coaching career deep in the bowels of the MCG there was a 14-year-old kid in the dressing rooms who was just as excited.

It was Sam Butler, younger brother of 21-year-old Dan Butler, who in his 23rd AFL game had shared in Richmond's eight-goal win over Adelaide. He'd even kicked the penultimate goal 10 minutes from full-time as celebrations were getting under way.

The Butler brothers, from Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, are seven years apart but they are tight. Drawn together by a strong football passion, it was a special moment for all.

Hardwick won't remember it, but Butler certainly will. Because it's been his driving motivation through five years and 33 AFL games as a player at Hawthorn.

And now, after a trade from Hawthorn to Gold Coast, he can chase it with the coach he idolised on that very special day as Hardwick and his then Tigers won the first of a 2017-19-20 premiership treble.

The 23-year-old 183cm utility heads to the SUNS in search of greater opportunity after 33 games in five years with the Hawks.

He's played four games for a 1-3 record against the SUNS, is 0-2 at People First Stadium, and has a 15-18 career record that has played out in two parts. He was 5-14 in his first three years and has gone 10-4 in the last two years.

He has career bests of 20 possessions (10 contested), two goals, nine tackles and four clearances, and played three finals in 2025, which included a career-best game of 15 possessions, two goals and nine tackles from a career-high 80% game time in the 34-point semi-final win over Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

Butler is a product of the Greater Western Victoria Rebels in the 2021 NAB League and St Patrick's College in Ballarat, which boasts among its alumni SUNS assistant coach Shaun Grigg and new teammate Daniel Rioli, West Coast captain Liam Duggan, Brisbane premiership player Kai Lohmann, AFL greats Danny Frawley, Barry Richardson, Drew Petrie and Mick McGuane, marathon great Steve Moneghetti, and former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks.

Butler was drafted at #23 in the 2021 AFL Draft after an outstanding performance at the Vic Country Combine, where he recorded the quickest 20m sprint time (2.97 seconds) and ran second in the running vertical jump (87cm) and standing vertical jump (71cm).

He was tipped to go to Richmond at #15 to join his brother, and was also linked to Fremantle at #19, Geelong at #22 and Carlton at #25 in the draft in which Jason Horne-Francis (North Melbourne), Sam Darcy (Western Bulldogs), Finn Callaghan (GWS), Nick Daicos (Collingwood) and Mac Andrew (Gold Coast) filled the top five spots.

Butler saw three Rebels teammates picked up. Josh Gibcus went to Richmond at #9, Ben Hobbs went to Essendon at #13 and Lohmann went to Brisbane at #20 before he was claimed by Hawthorn at #23.

Oscar Adams, now a SUNS teammate, was drafted at #51 by St Kilda before the SUNS took Charlie Constable at #63.

Ironically, Butler debuted in Round 9, 2022 at the MCG against a Hardwick-coached Richmond, but by then brother Dan was into his third year at St Kilda.

The sides met again 11 weeks later and this time the brothers were opposed. Dan had 11 possessions and a goal in his 102nd game, and 19-year-old Sam had nine possessions and a goal in his eighth game as the Saints won by 12 points.

In Round 11, 2023 they met again, and this time Sam took the win. The Hawks prevailed by 10 points after Sam had 15 possessions and a goal and Dan had 14 possessions and two goals.

But in the three years since, their paths haven't crossed on the field.

Butler's first player profile in the AFL Guide in 2022 described him as a "clean and clever utility who can play forward or through the midfield, has elite acceleration but also enjoys getting his hands dirty and working equally hard off the ball."

He showed good promise in 2022-23, and had played twice and been emergency twice in the first six weeks of 2023 when disaster struck. Playing in the VFL, he snapped the tibia and fibula in his left leg in half in what could easily have been a career-ender.

Reflecting on the stomach-churning moment 12 months later, he said: "I heard a snap and I was on the ground. I was like, 'holy crap. If that's me, I'm done'. I looked down and my toes were nearly touching my knee."

Doctors told Butler the broken bones cut through his calf muscle like a knife.

What followed, he said, was the "longest five minutes of my life" as he desperately sought the pain-relieving green whistle, then had to wait well over an hour for an ambulance to take him from Box Hill City Oval to hospital.

He took eight months to fully recover from surgery, having to learn to walk again before taking gradual steps back into football, rebuilding belief in his ability before eventually returning through the VFL.

"I got a lot of confidence this year, but when I was coming back from the injury I had to work on that side of it a lot," Butler said in September 2025.

"First contact stuff, even on those bags that you do before training, that was nerve-racking. Elevating different types of contact training was tough mentally."

Almost a year to the day after the injury, Butler returned with four goals in his VFL comeback, and after five VFL games he returned to the Hawthorn AFL side in Round 13 last year when Nick Watson was sick.

It was the start of a sequence of events that will fill the hearts of SUNS fans with hope.

Butler held his place in Round 14 when Watson returned and, after a Round 15 bye, played in Round 16 before an unrelated leg injury sidelined him again as the Hawks went 5-3 through the last eight games to finish eighth on the ladder.

They were drawn to play fifth-placed GWS in an elimination final at Engie Stadium when Butler, who had finished the VFL season well, was the beneficiary of a huge selection call from Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell.

Mitchell dropped 308-game triple premiership player Luke Breust in a move which subsequently ended his brilliant career.

So Butler's fourth, fifth and sixth games back from his broken leg were finals. And had the Hawks not lost by five goals to Geelong in the preliminary final he would have played in the 2025 grand final.

Still, his path to a regular game at the Hawks was blocked this year by the likes of Nick Watson, Jack Ginnivan, Dylan Moore and Connor Macdonald, all similar types.

He played the first six games of the AFL season, plus Round 9 and Round 22, but otherwise had to be content with a key role with star-studded VFL affiliate Box Hill, who won the premiership.

Butler averaged 25.7 possessions, 1.4 goals and 4.9 tackles in the VFL before a preliminary final suspension for a bump on Essendon's Harry Jones cost him a place in the grand final, when the Hawks, with fellow SUNS newcomer Aidan Schubert in the side, beat Geelong by 23 points.

Still, he'd left a telling mark on the SUNS with a brilliant 32 possessions, three goals and five tackles for Box Hill against the SUNS at People First Stadium on 19 June. Hardwick was already a fan, but if he needed a clincher this was it.

And now the pair have enjoyed a reunion nine years in the making.