Charlie Dixon (born 23 September 1990) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er playing for the

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where they are nicknamed ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). He was recruited by the

Gold Coast Football Club The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since the ...

as a Queensland zoned selection made available to Gold Coast under the AFL's draft concessions. He scored the first ever goal in the history of the club on 2 April 2011 against .

Early life

Dixon was born and raised in

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. His parents both played basketball in their younger years and Charlie began playing

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

at the age of four where he made several junior representative sides through the eight years he played the sport.

Junior football

Dixon began playing junior football with the Redlynch Lions Football Club in 2003. He would then join the Cairns Saints Football Club and made the seniors team at the age of 16. In his last game for the Saints he played in the 2007

AFL Cairns AFL Cairns is a semi-professional Australian rules football league that includes clubs from the Cairns region in Queensland, Australia. It is widely regarded as the strongest regional Australian rules football league in Queensland and has a lar ...

Grand Final on his 17th birthday, the Saints would finish runners-up. Following graduation from high school at the end of 2007 he and his brother moved to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

where they were invited to play for the Redland Bombers in the

AFL Queensland State League The Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL) is an Australian rules football competition organised by the AFL Queensland, contested by clubs from South East Queensland. Previously known as the Queensland Football League (QFL), Queensland ...

. He worked his way through the Redland ranks before playing for the senior side in 2008. In August 2008, Dixon was the first player ever to sign a contract with the newly formed

for their inaugural year in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

. At the beginning of the 2009 TAC Cup season, Dixon was named vice-captain of the club. He played 15 games for the season and also represented the Queensland under 18 teams in the

AFL Under 18 Championships The AFL Under-19 Championships (for sponsorship reasons, the NAB AFL Under-19 Championships) is an annual Australian national underage representative championship in Australian rules football tournament. It is seen as one of the main pathways ...

3 times and was a standout. Dixon's efforts in 2009 would see him officially drafted to the Gold Coast team at the start of 2010 by way of the local talent access selection. In the 2010 season with the Gold Coast competing in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

, Dixon was again a standout when he finished the year with 22 goals from 14 games. Halfway through the season Dixon broke the player's code and was sent down to play for the Labrador Tigers for one match before returning to the VFL. He, along with teammate

Brandon Matera Brandon Matera (born 11 March 1992) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Gold Coast Football Club (2011–2017) and the Fremantle Football Club (2018–2020) in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was r ...

, were the two leading goalkickers for the Suns in the

2010 VFL season The 129th season of the Victorian Football League was held in 2010. The North Ballarat Football Club won the premiership, its third flag in a row. Teams This season featured the addition of the Queensland-based Gold Coast Football Club to the ...

AFL career

Gold Coast

He made his debut in Round 2, 2011 in the Gold Coast Suns inaugural AFL match against

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

the Gabba The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname Gabba derives from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. Over the years, the Ga ...

, with Dixon kicking two of the Sun's goals in their heavy loss, including the first goal ever for the Suns. Two weeks later it was found that Dixon had been playing half-blind his entire football career and required contact lenses. In Round 5, wearing contacts for the first time, Dixon was part of the Gold Coast Sun's first AFL victory over Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium and kicked two goals during the win. He would continue to play each game until round 6 when the Suns suffered their second-worst loss to date, a 139-point loss to the

Essendon Bombers The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

. Dixon was subsequently dropped and struggled to regain fitness which would only see him return to the senior side five more times for the season. He ended the 2011 season with 6 goals from 10 games. Following the 2012 pre-season in which Dixon raced the clock to gain fitness, he managed to shed 5 kg and would return in round 5 against the

North Melbourne Kangaroos The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Kangaroos also ...

, kicking two goals in the process. He was then tested in the ruck position for the next few games. In round 7 he suffered a soft tissue injury that would rule him out for 7 games. Upon return Dixon was tried in defence for the Suns and subsequently shone in the following weeks against the likes of Tom Hawkins,

Jack Riewoldt Jack Riewoldt ( ; born 31 October 1988) is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is a three-time premiership player, a three-time Coleman Medallist, a ...

and Jonathan Brown. On 4 July 2015, in a win over North Melbourne, Dixon became the first Suns player to kick seven goals in a game.

Port Adelaide

In the 2015 AFL Trade Period Dixon was traded to . At the end of the 2020 AFL season, Dixon finished outright second in the

Coleman Medal The Coleman Medal is an Australian rules football award given annually to the Australian Football League (AFL) player who kicks the most goals A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer ...

and earned his first All-Australian selection.

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of round 22, 2022'' , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, , 23 , , 10 , , 6 , , 4 , , 39 , , 38 , , 77 , , 14 , , 18 , , 9 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 3.9 , , 3.8 , , 7.7 , , 1.4 , , 1.8 , , 0.9 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, , 23 , , 12 , , 4 , , 6 , , 89 , , 62 , , 151 , , 48 , , 21 , , 93 , , 0.3 , , 0.5 , , 7.4 , , 5.2 , , 12.6 , , 4.0 , , 1.8 , , 7.8 , , 0 , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, , 23 , , 13 , , 19 , , 7 , , 93 , , 73 , , 166 , , 42 , , 31 , , 135 , , 1.5 , , 0.5 , , 7.2 , , 5.6 , , 12.8 , , 3.2 , , 2.4 , , 10.4 , , 4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2014 , , 23 , , 14 , , 24 , , 9 , , 74 , , 55 , , 129 , , 37 , , 28 , , 69 , , 1.7 , , 0.6 , , 5.3 , , 3.9 , , 9.2 , , 2.6 , , 2.0 , , 4.9 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, , 23 , , 16 , , 41 , , 15 , , 102 , , 49 , , 151 , , 59 , , 27 , , 32 , , 2.6 , , 0.9 , , 6.4 , , 3.1 , , 9.4 , , 3.7 , , 1.7 , , 2.0 , , 6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2016 , , 22 , , 18 , , 30 , , 16 , , 102 , , 103 , , 205 , , 70 , , 31 , , 21 , , 1.7 , , 0.9 , , 5.7 , , 5.7 , , 11.4 , , 3.9 , , 1.7 , , 1.2 , , 2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2017 , , 22 , , 23 , , 49 , , 30 , , 218 , , 117 , , 335 , , 149 , , 71 , , 29 , , 2.1 , , 1.3 , , 9.5 , , 5.1 , , 14.6 , , 6.5 , , 3.1 , , 1.3 , , 8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2018 , , 22 , , 20 , , 26 , , 24 , , 158 , , 107 , , 265 , , 82 , , 51 , , 159 , , 1.3 , , 1.2 , , 7.9 , , 5.6 , , 13.3 , , 4.1 , , 2.6 , , 8.0 , , 3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 2019 , , 22 , , 9 , , 13 , , 11 , , 61 , , 40 , , 101 , , 29 , , 19 , , 23 , , 1.4 , , 1.2 , , 6.8 , , 4.4 , , 11.2 , , 3.2 , , 2.1 , , 2.6 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, , 22 , , 18 , , 34 , , 21 , , 110 , , 60 , , 170 , , 69 , , 30 , , 46 , , 1.9 , , 1.2 , , 6.1 , , 3.3 , , 9.4 , , 3.8 , , 1.7 , , 2.6 , , 9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, , 22 , , 24 , , 48 , , 24 , , 178 , , 117 , , 295 , , 97 , , 50 , , 104 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , 7.4 , , 4.9 , , 12.3 , , 4.0 , , 2.1 , , 4.3 , , 3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, , 22 , , 11 , , 16 , , 7 , , 84 , , 72 , , 156 , , 37 , , 24 , , 81 , , 1.5 , , 0.6 , , 7.6 , , 6.6 , , 14.2 , , 3.4 , , 2.2 , , 7.4 , , , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 188 ! 310 ! 174 ! 1308 ! 893 ! 2201 ! 733 ! 401 ! 801 ! 1.7 ! 0.9 ! 7.0 ! 4.8 ! 11.7 ! 3.9 ! 2.1 ! 4.3 ! 35 Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Charlie 1990 births Living people Gold Coast Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Queensland Redland Football Club players Labrador Australian Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) All-Australians (AFL)