Despite his strong on-field performance, Melbourne traded Pike to Fitzroy Football Club at the end of 1994 due to his off-field problems with alcohol.
After playing 14 games for Fitzroy in 1995, Pike played all 22 games in 1996, winning Fitzroy's best-and-fairest award, beating later Port Adelaide captain Matthew Primus for the honour. However, in late 1996, via a deal with the administrator of the Fitzroy Football Club at the time, the Brisbane Bears took over Fitzroy's AFL operations. Pike was not selected as one of the eight Fitzroy players to move north to Brisbane at the end of 1996, largely due to his poor off-field reputation. In July 1996 he was found guilty of drink driving for the third time and was fined $1000, lost his licence for five years and sentenced to six months jail, but avoided having to go to jail, being able to serve the sentence at home under an intensive correction order.[2]
North Melbourne 1997–2000
Hoping in part to capitalise in part on the bad feeling many Victorian based Fitzroy supporters had about the failed merger with the North Melbourne Football Club, and about the way the deal with Bears was executed, the 1996 Premiers, North Melbourne, recruited a number of former Fitzroy players, including Pike, in the 1996 AFL Draft.
Pike had a solid year in 1997: North finished third and South Australia included him in their 1998 State of Origin squad. His work off the halfback line and on the wings generated many opportunities for the team's forwards. Pike was a member of the North Melbourne Grand Final team that lost to Adelaide Football Club in 1998 after winning the minor premiership that year before becoming a member of the Kangaroos' premiership winning team in 1999, fulfilling a lifelong ambition.
However, due to poor form in 2000, combined with discipline issues off the field (including a widely reported late arrival to a compulsory club function), North Melbourne delisted him at the end of 2000.[3]
Brisbane Lions 2001–2005
The Brisbane Lions recruited Pike in the 2000 AFL Draft after impressing coach Leigh Matthews in an interview, although Pike's reputation was poor enough for Matthews to consult his leading players before committing to the wayward footballer. Pike quickly proved himself at his fourth club, playing 22 games in 2001 as the club won its first premiership. Now with family commitments, Pike was a reformed character, with increased professionalism and none of the poor off-field behaviour that had marred his career at his previous clubs.
The Lions reached their fourth successive grand final in 2004 but lost to Port Adelaide Football Club in the grand final. Pike was disappointed with his performance in that match, and was reportedly involved in an altercation with a club official in the early hours of the morning on return to Brisbane, the only display of the behaviour which caused him problems before signing with the Lions. Despite resulting speculation that his contract would not be renewed he accepted a one-year contract for 2005. However, Pike's season was heavily disrupted by injury and he was unable to add more than a handful of games to his career tally before announcing his retirement on 2 August 2005 with four matches remaining in the regular season.[4]
In February 2006, the Hastings Football Club in the rural Victorian Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League announced that Pike had accepted an offer to coach the club for the upcoming season. He made an appearance in the 2006 AFL Legends Match. He continued as senior coach of the Hastings Football Club in 2007. He was the coach of VFL reserve side, Northern Bullants for the 2009 season. In 2010 Pike was appointed to the position of Senior Coach of the Power House Football Club in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.[6]