He played in five premierships, winning Melbourne's best and fairest in 1960, while in 1961 he was selected in the All-Australian team and he also won the Tassie Medal for his performances at the 1961 Brisbane Carnival.
Despite still playing football for Melbourne, he entered parliament in 1964, as the member for the now abolished seat of St Kilda, representing the Liberal Party.
[1] Being from the moderate wing of the party he clashed with then Premier Henry Bolte, especially over the hanging of Ronald Ryan which Dixon strongly opposed.
[3] In 1979, Dixon won St Kilda by an extremely narrow margin, which crucially gave the Hamer Liberal government a majority of one seat in the Legislative Assembly, and meant that the Liberal Party did not need to form a Coalition, with the National Party, with which relations were traditionally poor in Victoria.
He was also president of AFL South Africa, taking a keen interest in other countries playing Australian rules football.