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Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says he recently "picked a fight" with key forward Charlie Dixon, who played a starring role in a win over Richmond.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley picked a fight with key forward Charlie Dixon a couple of weeks ago.
As Dixon struggled with injury and form during a six-week absence from the AFL side, Hinkley was blunt with the 33-year-old.
"I asked him the question, to be honest, when we got the point where it was challenging to put him in the team: does he want to fight?" Hinkley said after Dixon's four-goal haul in a 41-point win against Richmond.
"Something I have learnt in this game, in football for a long time, if you want someone to fight, pick a fight.
"And I picked a fight with Charlie about whether he did want to keep going.
"Credit to him, he showed a fight."
Dixon had kicked just two goals in five AFL games before being spelled by Hinkley, who first met the spearhead when an assistant coach at Gold Coast in 2011.
Dixon played 65 games for the Suns in five seasons before being lured by Hinkley in 2016 to Alberton.
The 200cm-tall attacker's Saturday night outing against Richmond was his 150th game for the Power.
""He has worked really hard to get himself back to play AFL football and I am really proud of him," Hinkley said.
"Everyone knows that I am a massive Charlie Dixon fan. And I have been for a long, long, long time.
"What I love is he gives me everything he has possibly got, he put it out there for us."
Hinkley also dismissed any concern over captain Connor Rozee, who suffered a corked hip in the final term of the win over the last-placed Tigers.
"He got a whack on the hip, a pretty normall footy injury unfortunately, he will be fine. We didn't put him back on because we didn't need to," he said.
