A disappointing finish to Saturday’s clash against Carlton clouded the GC SUNS dressing rooms after the final siren sounded, but upon reflection Charlie Dixon managed to find a silver lining.  

“We let ourselves down against Carlton but there were still some good signs we can take away from the contest,” Dixon said.

“Hopefully we can take a bit of form and confidence from our win against Collingwood over to Perth and come up trumps over West Coast.”

In his return from a recurring ankle injury, Dixon was superb – collecting 17 disposals, six marks (4 of which were contested), two goals and competed hard on ground level.

While Dixon’s individual numbers stacked favourable for Guy McKenna, the recalled Gold Coaster was forced to share the ruck duties with Sam Day after Tom Nicholls was substituted out of the match in the third term with a knee injury.

“Daisy (Sam) and I sort of handled that role pretty well, and did the best we could with Tommy going down,” he said.

Similar to Luke Russell’s review, the towering ruck-forward said the Gold Coast’s lack of composure with the contested football created too many turnover opportunities for the opposition.

“Our skills let us down big time; too many times we brought them back into the contest.

“Basic fundamentals and missed handballs killed us in the end.”