Charlie Dixon will return to the scene of his greatest moment in the AFL on Saturday to become the 18th member of the Gold Coast Suns 50-Game Club.

It was Round 5, 2013 when the SUNS last visited Canberra to play the GWS Giants, winning by 44 points.

Dixon was the hero, kicking a club record six goals and earning 23 of a possible 25 votes in the best and fairest, as well as his only three-vote haul in the Brownlow Medal.

It was a performance ranked the best by a big man in the short SUNS’ history, with only midfielders Gary Ablett and Harley Bennell having registered higher single-game best and fairest scores.

In addition to his six goals, the powerful Dixon posted career-bests for kicks (13), marks (9), contested marks (5) and marks inside 50 (6) against their expansion ‘brothers’.

SUNS coach Rodney Eade wasn’t on hand to see Dixon’s single-handed demolition, but so highly is it regarded in club folklore that the power forward/ruckman was catapulted into the senior side after just three quarters of football in the NEAFL side last weekend.

Having kicked three goals and moved well in his long-awaited return from ankle surgery, Dixon was selected for Saturday’s Round 3 clash with the Giants in the national capital.

It was welcome relief for the bearded 24-year-old, who had been stranded on 49 career games since Round 21 last year.

He even listened in bewilderment in Round 1 this year as the MCG ground announcer, unaware of Dixon’s injury status, saluted his 50th game against Melbourne as he sat in the grandstand.

Dixon, the first player signed by the SUNS and the player who kicked the first goal for the League’s 17th franchise, will join a 50-Game Honour Roll headed by Ablett, who posted his SUNS half-century in Round 10 2013.

In order, others to post 50 games for the SUNS have been Jared Brennan, Jarrod Harbrow, Trent McKenzie, Matt Shaw, Danny Stanley, David Swallow, Bennell, Dion Prestia, Michael Rischitelli, Sam Day, Luke Russell, Brandon Matera, Zac Smith, Steven May and Rory Thompson.

Dixon’s inclusion in the senior side ahead of schedule was a timely bonus for parents Gordon and Helen, who had been holiday on a family farm in southern NSW and have had only to extend their stay and drive to Canberra for the occasion.

The SUNS, desperate to post their first win of the season, will head to Canberra with a 4-1 head-to-head record against the Giants.

They’ve won their last four meetings by 40, 83, 44 and 30 points after the Giants won their first meeting by 27 points in the national capital in 2012.

No less than eight members of the SUNS side this week will wear the club’s colors in Canberra for the first time – Jarrod Garlett, Touk Miller, Adam Saad, Kade Kolodjashnij, Sean Lemmens, Jack Martin and Alex Sexton, plus Nick Malceski, who has played there five times for the Sydney Swans.

Malceski is the only member of the SUNS side to have won at Manuka Oval, which earlier this year hosted the final of the Twenty20 Big Bash.