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Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr has denied claims Warren Tredrea has been kicked out of the club after the premiership captain was sacked from the board. Tredrea was removed from the Power's board last week after refusing to apologise for an antisemitism row. Port reviewed Tredrea's board role after he hosted a podcast with a guest who was criticised for promoting far-right views. But Carr, his 2004 premiership teammate who has officially taken over as Port's head coach, said Tredrea remained a club great. "Nothing changes from what Tredders is to our football club," Carr told reporters on Thursday. "He's a past player, he's a legend of the footy club, he's one of the greatest that I ever played with — if not the greatest in the AFL era. "So from that point of view, he hasn't been kicked out of the footy club. "He's off the board for obviously the reasons about what is best for the football club and the board made that decision." After his dismissal was announced, Tredrea posted on social media he was "concerned about the actions taken by a number of important people at our club", without elaborating. Tredrea hosts a podcast in which a guest, British Army veteran AJ Roberts, was criticised by the Jewish Council of Australia for promoting "far-right, antisemitic conspiracy theories" and Holocaust denials on the show. Port's chief executive officer, Matthew Richardson, said Tredrea's removal was a governance matter. "Reasonable people understand what the issue is," Richardson told reporters on Thursday. "The board did afford Warren numerous opportunities to resolve the matter. "And unfortunately it got to a point where that wasn't possible so the board, in the best interests of the club, needed to act." Port confident Butters will re-commit long term Carr was flanked at a media conference at the Power's Alberton headquarters by Richardson and the club's new general manager of football, Ben Rutten. Rutten, an Adelaide Crows playing great who coached Essendon and was an assistant coach at Richmond, has yet to meet with the Power's midfield ace Zak Butters. Butters, winner of the past three club champion awards, is already fielding multi-million dollar offers to return to his native Victoria when his Port contract expires at the end of next season. "It's certainly a priority for us to make Zak a long-term player at the club," Rutten told reporters. "I have always been a strong believer [that] we're not here to convince people to stay, we want to create the environment for people to want to stay [and] people to want to come here. "I know it's going to be a bit of a hot topic throughout the year but that's going to be the way forward for us." Carr echoed Rutten's sentiment. "It's about creating the environment that players don't want to leave," he said. "And if they leave, it's the hardest decision they have ever had to make in their life. "The culture of this football club is such a great culture that everyone wants to be here — and if you decide to leave, then there's the right reasons are there."
