Written by Megan Taylor, sports reporter covering international sports since 2020
Nathan Fitzgerald death has left Epping Football Club grieving and demanding urgent safety changes after the 27-year-old player suffered a head injury during a suburban Melbourne football match on Saturday.
Fitzgerald, known affectionately as “Fitzy”, spent several days on life support before he died, prompting fresh concern over hard synthetic cricket pitch covers used on shared sporting grounds.
The tragedy comes during a serious week for Australian football stories, with Nasiah Wanganeen Milera dominating the AFL form tracker after a career-high showcase.
Club Calls For Safety Review
Epping Football Club president Luke De Vincentis said the community had been left shattered by Fitzgerald’s death.
“We have been reeling since Saturday and trying to deal with something that didn’t feel real because this is such foreign territory that we’re trying to navigate,” De Vincentis told Sunrise on Tuesday.
“Whilst Nathan was still on life support, we all held on to a skerrick of hope that there may have been a miracle. But then, when the news came through overnight that he’d passed away peacefully, it’s become very real. We’re a shattered community.”
De Vincentis has urged AFL Victoria, Cricket Victoria and local councils to review the use of synthetic coverings placed over concrete cricket pitches.
“I think what has been done to date, which is the covering of these concrete pitches with synthetic and sand, has been the way they’ve done it for a really long time,” De Vincentis said.
“Fortunately to date, there hasn’t been too many significant incidents, but I think it was a tragedy waiting to happen.”
Fitzgerald Remembered By Community
De Vincentis said the weekend’s incident showed current ground safety measures are no longer enough.
“What we’ve seen over the weekend just shows now that it doesn’t cut it,” he said.
Hundreds of supporters have paid tribute to Fitzgerald, while a GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $90,000 for his family.
“The strength that she has shown is just a testament to her character and the family’s gratitude towards the outpouring of emotion,” De Vincentis said of Fitzgerald’s sister.
“They said, ‘Good luck on Saturday morning. Go have a great game.’ Not expecting to be saying farewell a couple of days later, which is just tragic.”
Official community football updates are available through AFL Victoria.
