Submitted by Peter Blucher.
Charlie Dixon is edging towards a milestone that only four of 189 Queensland AFL players have reached … 50 goals in a season.
After a strong run in the last five weeks the Port Adelaide Power forward is nine short of his half century with three home-and-away games plus finals to play.
He kicked four goals in Port’s 27-point win over the GWS Giants at Docklands on Sunday and now has 15 goals since Round 16 – more than everyone in the League except for Carlton’s runaway Coleman Medal leader Harry McKay (16).
With a previous best season haul of 49 goals in 2019, Dixon is 7th on the Coleman leaderboard behind McKay (57), Adelaide’s Taylor Walker (48), Geelong’s Tom Hawkins (46), Western Bulldogs’ Josh Bruce (45), Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt (45) and Gold Coast’s Ben King (43).
The former Cairns junior and foundation Gold Coast Suns player is looking to join fellow Queensland products Jason Dunstall, Nick Riewoldt, Kurt Tippett and Charlie Cameron in the ‘50-Goal Club’.
Dunstall, third on the all-time AFL goal-kicking list, topped 50 goals in a season 12 times in his extraordinary 14-year AFL career at Hawthorn. He topped 100 goals six times, with a best of 145 in 1992, and missed 50 only twice – in his first season in 1985, when he kicked 36 goals in 16 games, and his second-last season in 1997, when he kicked 21 goals in eight games.
Riewoldt had five 50-plus seasons for St.Kilda, with a best of 78 in 2009, while Tippett kicked 55 goals in 2009 for Adelaide before moving to Sydney, and Cameron 57 for Brisbane in 2019 after moving from Adelaide.
If Dixon can reach the 50-goal milestone he will complete a special 2021 Queensland statistical double after Adelaide’s Ben Keays reached 500 possessions in a season in Round 19.
Keays was just the ninth Queenslander to this mark. Michael Voss and Dayne Beams head the list with five 500+ seasons each from Brisbane trio Dayne Zorko (3), Marcus Ashcroft (2) and Scott McIvor (1) and StKilda pair David Armitage (1) and Sam Gilbert (1).
Beams recorded the highest single-season possession count by a Queenslander of 741 in 2012 when playing with Collingwood.
Dixon was the only Queenslander to figure in the AFLCA votes for Round 20, collecting seven votes to rank second best in his game behind teammate Karl Amon after collecting 12 possessions (nine contested), four goals and four contested marks.
He has jumped to third among Queenslanders in the AFLCA player of the year award with 30 votes, behind only Zorko (41) and Sydney’s Tom Hickey (34).
In other standout performances by Queenslanders in Round 20.
Jack Payne had a career-best 22 possessions, including a career-best 10 contested possessions, in the Lions’ poor loss to Hawthorn in Launceston, while Harris Andrews had a season-high 16 one-percenters.
Bailey Scott followed his career-best 26 possessions of Round 19 with 20 possessions in North Melbourne’s hard-fought loss to Geelong in Hobart.
Elliott Himmelberg continued a strong late season run of form, kicking two goals for Adelaide against the Western Bulldogs and pulling down four contested marks.
And Hickey continued his outstanding season with 14 possessions, a goal, 24 hit-outs and a magnificent smother in the closing seconds to ensure the Swans beat Essendon at Docklands on Sunday.
Peter Blucher is a Consultant with Vivid Sport.
