Charlie Dixon finds Port in a storm

For  Charlie Dixon, the cultural and geographical distance from the Gold Coast to Port Adelaide was just one part of the long journey he has travelled from those dark days earlier this year, when he wondered whether he was up for football after all.

The game that had come so naturally to the Suns' first player was proving every bit as demanding as his early mentor and Gold Coast assistant Ken Hinkley had warned, and the extracurricular issues Guy McKenna and others had cautioned him about threatened to spiral out of control.

Implicated in the Karmichael Hunt scandal and believing the matter could go further for him, Dixon says now: "I was struggling with some stuff and I wondered ... I don't know if this is for me." 

Charlie Dixon with Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley at Alberton Oval in Adelaide on Wednesday. Photo: David Mariuz

There were several turning points that led him to recommit mentally and that took Dixon and his beloved Staffordshire terrier Otis across the country, but one was when his form improved and football went from being a burden to an escape. And his attitude improved. Then there was the advice of his family, the call from Hinkley and the realisation he would be better away from the Gold Coast.

"I already knew what Kenny would bring to the table," said Dixon. "I knew the impact Ken would have on my game. At the Gold Coast he was the one who'd really ride me and who'd keep me accountable. That was something I needed." 

Hinkley's relationship with Dixon during the Gold Coast's formative years cannot be underplayed in his eventual decision the to quit the club. Several weeks before the end of the home and away season, the Port coach flew to Queensland for the pivotal meeting that would  see Dixon make the emotional transition from the fledgling club that signed him as its first player.

That meeting, one Monday in August, was at the home of the player's manager Peter Blucher – also Hinkley's manager – and included Power football lieutenant Chris Davies. The influence of Port captain Travis Boak was present too when he called in during the talks and spoke to the player about how important a role he could be expected to play at his new club. 

In the week leading up to Gold Coast's last game – after a bruising round-22 encounter against Port that saw Dixon in the thick of a wild scuffle with a group of players including Matthew Lobbe – he told the Suns of his decision.

"It was definitely the hardest thing I've had to do," said Dixon. "Growing up with those boys ... playing TAC Cup and then the VFL and over five years in the AFL, it would have been an awesome thing to win a flag with those boys.

"I spoke to the family and we talked about starting afresh, getting out of the Gold Coast and heading to South Australia for a fresh start."

As Hinkley said to Dixon: "We're not going to be the only ones who hold you to account. It's the whole community now." And yet there remains a strong view that Dixon, despite all the above, might have stayed had all parties known Harley Bennell would also leave.

At the time the decision was made, the club was still publicly standing behind Bennell. Certainly all agreed the two young men should not remain together at the Suns.

"I know I made some mistakes on the Gold Coast," said Dixon, whose new stated resolutions are conservative and simple: to fit into the team and get the best out of himself, and thrive on the added scrutiny.

Port did not want this story to dwell on Gold Coast's annus horribilis but Dixon did remain steadfast on the issue of alcohol bans and the specific ban he broke, which proved a major embarrassment for him. He was struggling to sleep, he said, and enjoyed a drink or two on the eve of each game after realising it cured his wakefulness and worry.

But Dixon's stress was compounded when he was exposed and suspended after the Launceston incident, when he and teammate Jack Martin were caught after an unpaid bar bill emerged.

As he said, he was struggling with a number of off-field issues and fearing, according to friends, a potential police probe that never eventuated, and "for me, a couple of beers helped me sleep, took the edge off it". Although he subscribed to the ban at the time, Dixon now says of it: "You're setting me up to fail." 

"There's so many different people in a football club, different personalities ... for me it took the edge off it," he said.

To put a finger on where it went wrong at the Suns, the player himself traces things back to those early years when he believed raw talent, size and his well-known competitive aggression would be enough to get him through. What he also boasted was a notoriously cavalier attitude to detail – Dixon was known to turn up at times in bare feet, a hot head and an unreliable body.

As his first senior coach, McKenna told him: "You're good on the football field – that's fine. What you need to worry about is everything else." 

And Hinkley? "I was no good for Charlie early ... well not no good, but really blunt. I told him, 'You've got no idea where you're going but they're going to come after you and they're going to smack you.' It was minimal effort and raw talent with him. He laughed at first." 

Having played his hand early by stating Dixon was worth a first-round draft pick – the Power eventually also traded next year's second-round pick in the Dixon deal – Hinkley is blunt regarding his expectations of the 201-centimetre forward/ruckman, who is expected to remain close to goal with Jay Schulz alongside him.

"We've given up what is definitely a fair price for Charlie and probably a little more than we would have liked," said Hinkley.

"We've told him that Port Adelaide won't accept poor behaviour and we know he's got what it takes to be good. Charlie's attitude to detail as a young person was not spectacular. As the Suns' first signing he probably thought it might come a bit easier." 

Dixon agrees he failed for too long to take in those early warnings.

"Kenny would tell me, 'You don't know what it's like in the AFL,' but I didn't really take it on board. It took me so long to have an impact on games ... It didn't really hit me." Hinkley was initially worried that Dixon had chosen to live alone when he moved to Adelaide – albeit with his dog – but Dixon said he preferred it that way and had realised as much during this past tumultuous year. 

He is also single after a couple of intense relationships and a recently publicised friendship with former Hi-5 singer Lauren Brant and stressed he plans to remain living alone. But he has rented a four-bedroom house to fit in visiting family, notably his parents Gordon and Helen, a close relative of Ricky Quade, along with recently married big brother Jesse – for whom he was best man – and younger sister and former housemate Mollie.

Dixon spent his last night on the Gold Coast having dinner with his first host family, who have gone through their own trials. Dixon had the surreal feeling it would be the last day of his old life.

The next day he took a snapshot of his boarding pass – Otis safely deposited in his container for the flight – and put the picture on Facebook along with a message about starting a new life. He was quickly educated about the difference of a football town when he was greeted by a full media contingent at Adelaide Airport.

Last week, breakfasting with Otis at a roadside cafe, several drivers passed by and tooted, one calling: "Welcome to Adelaide."

"They're always going to be on your back," said Dixon, who agreed this, at present, was not a bad thing, and who lay awake fretting until after midnight last Sunday at the prospect of his first three-kilometre time trial.

At Gold Coast he had only done two-kilometre trials, and in fact Dixon has never completed a strong pre-season. Already Port's high-performance boss Darren Burgess has set him rehabilitative exercises for his problematic ankles, and although the club's competitive obsession barred Fairfax from detailing it, his time trial went all right. Hinkley is more effusive regarding his new recruit's early form on the track, along with Dixon's uncompromising demeanour in the heat of battle. "He wheels onto his left and kicks like a right-footer," said the coach with a smile.

"One thing I know about Charlie is that when he's played his first five minutes with us, they'll know he's their teammate. They'll love having him as their teammate and they'll know he's there for keeps.

"And he'll pick them up at times and drag them along with him."