Zak Butters has been ordered to face the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday after the league revealed the wording of his alleged insult toward umpire Nick Foot.

Butters is alleged to have said “How much are they paying you?” to the whistleblower during the third term of Port Adelaide’s fiery clash against St Kilda on Sunday.

The three-time Power club champion and acting captain was charged with abusive and insulting language toward an umpire, setting the scene for what shapes as an intriguing tribunal hearing.

The exchange between player and umpire was not picked up on the umpire’s microphone.

Butters gave a different version of events when asked about the exchange during Seven’s coverage of the match, saying he had asked “How is that a free kick?” before triggering the report.

“I’d love to know the language that I said because I went up to him after the game and obviously wanted to have a chat like any two humans do,” Butters said on Sunday.

“He said he didn’t want to speak to me. All I said was ‘how is that a free kick?’, and he gave 50 and said I’m on report.

“I had a few teammates right next to me, (including) Ollie Wines, so I’m curious to follow that one up because I’m never going to say anything bad to the umpires.

“So I just wanted to follow up and ask what he thought I said.”

Butters is one of the leading Brownlow Medal contenders after making a blazing start to the season, and leads the early voting in the AFL Coaches Association’s Player of the Year award.

The Power will be desperate to have their superstar midfielder available as they head into a defining stretch of games, including a trio of fixtures against last year’s finalists Hawthorn, Geelong and Adelaide in the next three weeks.

Meanwhile, Geelong’s Mark O’Connor was hit with a one-match ban following his bump on Eagles youngster Willem Duursma at Norwood Oval.

O’Connor’s hit was graded as careless conduct with high contact and medium impact, with the Cats set to weigh up fighting the ban before making a decision on Tuesday morning.

Duursma was able to immediately recover from the bump and played out the match.

The other Match Review charge to stem from Sunday’s games was St Kilda ruckman Tom De Koning copping a $1500 fine for staging, which can be reduced to $1000 with an early guilty plea.