Port Adelaide key forward Charlie Dixon is measured by more than goals in Ken Hinkley’s eyes
PORT Adelaide key forward Charlie Dixon has shuffled between the goal square and the centre square to cover the Power’s ruck crisis - and his goalscoring has fallen. But the big man’s appetite to compete is not fading
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NOT even in China can Charlie Dixon - nor his coach Ken Hinkley - escape the focus. You can count the goals the towering Port Adelaide forward has kicked this season on one hand.
All singles - against Fremantle (round 1), Brisbane (3), Essendon (4), North Melbourne (6), West Coast (7) ... and none against Sydney (2), Geelong (5) and Adelaide (8) to become another of Crows key defender Daniel Talia’s blank sheets.
Smog, the threat of a nuclear missile from North Korea, the ban on beer in Jiangwan Stadium’s temporary stands and Gold Coast upsetting Port Adelaide president David Koch with red jumpers in Shanghai are all last year’s tiresome chestnuts from Shanghai. As the AFL returns to China, the pressing issue this time is ... Dixon’s muted scoring boot.
Dixon’s 5.11 - the inaccuracy is to be noted as well after the 3.6 in last year’s extra-time elimination final - follows a career-best 49.30 last season, his second at Alberton after leaving Gold Coast.
“Yes, we’d all love him to be hitting the scoreboard,” says Hinkley. “Everyone wants him to hit the scoreboard ... but none more than Charlie himself.”
For five weeks - rounds 2-6 - there was the need to leave the goalsquare to cover the loss of All-Australian ruckman Patrick Ryder (left Achilles tendinitis). But Dixon knows no-one is counting his hit-outs (88 at a career-best game average of 11, if anyone wants to take note). It is always about the goals with Charlie.
“Everyone is going to have their opinion,” said Dixon. His is tough too.
“I’m definitely a lot slower to start the season with touches and goals. But my coaches want me to keep competing; they know my form is down but they have faith in me. And they say I’m still doing what I need to be doing out there.
“That’s the main thing ... the outside noise doesn’t bother me.”
Hinkley certainly is not flustered.
“Charlie’s got a role that he plays within our side that’s more than just goal ... the work he does for us, as a competitor first and foremost, is vital to our success,” said Hinkley, who first watched Dixon step into AFL football with his 200cm frame when they were both at Gold Coast.
Hinkley’s fire blanket on the debate - and Dixon’s ability to ignore the chatter - does not stop the question being asked where it matters most.
“You do have to ask yourself the question,” Dixon said. “And I just have to keep working on what the team needs me to do ...”
Dixon’s goalscoring count is the lowest since he went without scoring in the last four games of 2016 - the year Port Adelaide was denied Ryder by the WADA ban he carried from Essendon. Is it a coincidence that Dixon’s goal droughts follow with Ryder’s absence?
“The fans always want to see you kicking goals ... and everyone measures forwards by goals,” Dixon said. “But for me, the contest is massive. What I need to do for the team is bring the ball to ground, tackle, compete and help the little fellas out.”
Hinkley believes Dixon is a forward. Others argue he is a ruckman. Dixon let’s the debate run.
“I’m 200cm - and if the team need me to go in ruck, I’ll go in there - regardless of what everyone wants me to do,” Dixon said. “If Paddy is sore - and I need to give him a spell from the ruck - I will.
“It was definitely different (when Ryder missed with injury earlier this season). But I do like the contest, the physicality ... and I’ll do the best I can when asked.”
Hinkley’s unwavering confidence in Dixon also comes with one simple demand: “Win the contest - that’s it,” Dixon said.
“For Ken to back me each week is unreal. And that is why I love him.”
DIXON’S GREATEST MOVE
CHARLIE Dixon’s personality - with such a dismissive tone towards the grand attention given to AFL players - makes him well suited to the Gold Coast rather than the football-devoted SA market.
But after closing his count at 65 matches in the Suns’ five start-up seasons, Dixon has no regret in taking former Gold Coast assistant coach Ken Hinkley’s advice to follow him to Port Adelaide.
“It’s the best decision I ever made; it has been massive for me,” Dixon said. “I never look back.
“Moving from Gold Coast took me out of my comfort zone. When I came to Port Adelaide, I had no-one other than Kenny. I had to grow up - and just learn how to play footy, week in, week out.
“And the club has been massive in helping me do that and in managing my body,” added Dixon, who arrived at Alberton with question marks on his ankles after a troublesome run at Gold Coast.
Dixon plays his 50th AFL game for Port Adelaide on Saturday - in the return to Shanghai against his former team-mates at Gold Coast - with China’s fascination with superstitions seeming to fit with the key forward’s gameday routine.
But Dixon - with a nudge from the AFL - has moved away from the belief he needed a set piece of music, such as Kaleo’s “Way Down We Go”, in his ears before a game to be in the mood for an AFL encounter.
“I’m not too sure I have any superstitions anymore,” Dixon said. “I now go into a game with no-one dictating the way I am going to play football; nothing is going to dictate how I go about it.
“It is my mindset.
“Sometimes, if I feel I want to hear music, I will. But the AFL has taken our phones off us now (to protect integrity issues on gambling in football) as soon as we go into the changerooms ... that is a pain, but the AFL is going to do what they’re going to do.”
Now in his third season at Port Adelaide, Dixon has admired the power of tradition - and understands why it is so cherished at Alberton.
“Culture is huge at Port Adelaide,” Dixon said. “Winning culture too. The Hall of Fame night at the start of the year was unbelievable. Seeing some of the old players - and hearing their stories of winning grand finals - it just makes you want to win to repay them and show we can live up to the club’s theme of existing to win premierships.”
FACT FILE
Charlie Dixon
Age: 27 (September 23, 1990)
Height: 200cm
Weight: 108kg
Guernsey number: 22 (23 at Gold Coast)
Position: Key forward, ruck
AFL games: 114 (65 Gold Coast, 2011-15; 49, Port Adelaide, 2016-)
AFL goals: 178 (94 at Gold Coast, 84 at Port Adelaide)
AFL debut: Round 2, 2011 v Carlton at the Gabba
Highest game score: 7.2 for Gold Coast v North Melbourne, round 14, 2015 at Metricon Stadium
Recruited from: Gold Coast in trade at end of 2015
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
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