Port Adelaide can’t win the premiership without Charlie Dixon fit and firing on all cylinders, according to Power champion Kane Cornes.
Dixon will consult a surgeon after tearing ligaments in his right ankle in a marking contest during a training session last Friday.
The 31-year-old key forward, who kicked a team-high 48 goals last season, will be in a moonboot in the short-term.
It remains unclear how long he will be sidelined for or whether he will require surgery.
SEN host Dwayne Russell thinks Dixon’s potential absence could be good for the development of young talls Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiadis, but Cornes disagrees.
“I see it differently,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.
“I think there are certain players from each club that you can least afford to lose – Port Adelaide can’t win the premiership without Charlie Dixon. They cannot win it.
“His presence, the two or three or four opponents that he draws, he’s a spiritual figure there, he goes into the ruck.
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“To think that you could replace him with Todd Marshall, who is quite a mild-mannered footballer, and Georgiadis, who is a third-year player in the forward line, it’s not going to happen.
“There are individuals from teams that you can least afford to lose, Dixon is one of those for Port Adelaide. Huge blow.”
Dixon was third for averaged contested marks (2.5) last season and first in his All-Australian season (2.6) in 2020. He played all 24 games in 2021.
The Power bolstered their key forward stocks in the off-season, acquiring Jeremy Finlayson from GWS in the trade period.