Zak Butters says he needs to start having conversations about his future as his Port Adelaide contract nears its end, with the 25-year-old admitting the call will carry emotion no matter where he plays next season.

Butters, who will play his 150th AFL game when Port Adelaide hosts Carlton at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, said he has not yet seriously weighed the multi-million dollar pull from rival clubs that want to bring him back to Victoria. The Western Bulldogs and Geelong are understood to be among the clubs at the front of a long queue chasing the midfielder, who has averaged a career-high 31 disposals a game this season and has become Port Adelaide's club champion over the past three seasons.

For now, Butters is still focused on the field. He said he has not spoken too much with his family about what comes next, and added that he will probably think about it more in the back half of the year. That timeline leaves the immediate focus on Saturday night, before he returns to his family home in Darley, 55km north-west of Melbourne, during Port Adelaide's bye the following weekend.

There is also a sense of what leaving Port could mean beyond the contract numbers. Butters said there is a romance to being a one-club player like Travis Boak and Robbie Gray, both of whom stayed at Port Adelaide after arriving from Victoria. Yet he also made clear that his own decision is still in the future, even as the pressure around it grows with each game and each conversation.

"It's obviously a big decision," Butters said. "You think about everything... there's emotion attached to it, definitely. No matter what the decision is, it's going to be a pretty emotional one from my end, no matter what I do."

He said family and close friends will have to be part of the discussion soon. "Honestly, I haven't even spoken to my family too much about it," Butters said. "I have just really enjoyed having them at games and playing footy." He added: "And I always said I'd probably think about it more in the back half of the year."

That is the tension around one of the league's most sought-after players: Port Adelaide wants certainty, rival clubs want a chance, and Butters is still trying to separate the business of the game from the life he has built around it. "Just like 150 games, it creeps up on you quickly. So it's probably something I need to start having some conversations around with family and friends and people I'm closest to," he said. "It's my job to play footy, I enjoy playing footy as well," he said. "It's really exciting where the group is at the moment, a few young boys coming through."

For Port Adelaide, the next few months are likely to tell whether its best midfielder stays long enough to anchor the next stage of the club's rebuild, or becomes the latest Victorian-born star to be lured home.