{"id":781643,"date":"2026-07-06T01:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T01:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/781643\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T01:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T01:12:16","slug":"nathan-fitzgeralds-football-club-calls-for-investigation-into-cricket-pitches-on-sports-ovals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/781643\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Fitzgerald’s football club calls for investigation into cricket pitches on sports ovals"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Melbourne suburban football club is calling for an investigation into the way cricket pitches are covered on multi-use community sporting ovals after the tragedy involving Epping player Nathan Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old continues to receive end-of-life care after suffering critical head injuries during a reserves game in Melbourne’s north on the weekend.<\/p>\n

Epping Football Netball Club said Mr Fitzgerald was believed to have suffered three head knocks during a tackle at Lalor Reserve on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It said Mr Fitzgerald clashed heads with a fellow teammate then copped a knee or boot to the head before then hitting his head on the hard cricket pitch in the middle of the oval.<\/p>\n

Club president Luke De Vincentis said the players continued to rally around each other during the difficult time.<\/p>\n

“There’s heartbreak, but there’s shock and confusion, i just doesn’t feel real,” Mr De Vincentis told 774 ABC Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Epping president Luke De Vincentis wants an investigation into the way cricket pitches are covered on sports ovals. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Most community sporting ovals are managed by local councils.<\/p>\n

Hard cricket pitches are covered by synthetic grass and sand during the off-season.<\/p>\n

Mr De Vincentis said the pitch at Lalor Reserve was covered on Saturday, but the tragedy warranted an investigation into the way pitches are treated at all multi-use ovals.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, because we’re just local amateur sports, we have to be able to use these facilities for multiple purposes, but the risk does come that there is quite a hard strip of surface in the middle of the ground where there’s a high -velocity, high-contact sport played on,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I do hope this is explored and potentially the way that cricket pitches are covered moving forward is something that can absolutely be looked at because it is a significant risk and I think the weekend has proved what a dire outcome can be from that.”<\/p>\n

Mr De Vincentis said the club’s thoughts were with Mr Fitzgerald’s family.<\/p>\n

“We’ve lost a teammate and much-loved person from the club but more importantly the Fitzgerald family have lost a son and a brother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They would have wished him all the best on Saturday morning to go out and, you know, kick a goal and get a win\u00a0not realising that was the last time they were going to speak to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s just truly, truly heartbreaking.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cricket pitches are often covered with synthetic grass during winter sports. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Former AFL coach Mick Malthouse said the tragedy was “just simply horrible”.<\/p>\n

“So many games of football are played, so many games of netball, soccer, rugby and when something like this happens, you take a deep breath, you sit back, you have a look around you and you pray that it never happens to a family member or a friend,” he said during his regular segment on 774 Breakfast this morning.<\/p>\n

He said the practice of covering cricket pitches on ovals has been happening for decades and it was hard to avoid the area during a football game.<\/p>\n

He said the Victorian coroner would have to rule which head knock caused Mr Fitzgerald’s death, but agreed there could be an issue to examine regarding cricket pitches.<\/p>\n

“There’s going to be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Victorian government and the City of Whittlesea has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne suburban football club is calling for an investigation into the way cricket pitches are covered on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,167162,162413,5096,369854,85],"class_list":["post-781643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community-sport","tag-cricket-pitch","tag-head-knock","tag-nathan-fitzgerald","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}