David Butts Perpetual Trophy  –  Reserves Best & Fairest

The Reserves ‘Best and Fairest’ award is named in honour of past player, David Butts, a dedicated and courageous backman who played 97 games for Mentone during the 1980s. ‘Buttsie’, a no-nonsense, slim-built, left-footed defender, made his debut for the Mentone Third Eighteen, under coach Warren Fort, in 1984. He played all sixteen games in his first season and subsequently won the ‘Best Team Man’ award.

Especially noted for his dedication on the track, David went on to win the ‘Coaches’ Trophy’ in his second season with the Thirds. In 1986, David made his senior debut for the club, playing nineteen games for the Reserves and becoming a member of their premiership team.

In the following season he won the Reserves ‘Most Consistent’ award and in 1988 he again had a solid season playing eighteen matches. Despite only managing fourteen games in 1989, David polled an impressive 24 votes to finish runner-up in the ‘Best and Fairest’ award in what was a Reserves premiership year.

David, a member of the Victorian Police Force, died in tragic circumstances during the following summer. At the annual meeting in 1990, the club acknowledged David’s stalwart service throughout the previous decade by re-naming the Reserves ‘Best and Fairest’ award the ‘David Butts Memorial Trophy’ in his honour.