Tributes are pouring in for widespread Fox Footy and Herald Solar sports activities journalist Sam Landsberger, after his tragic demise in a visitors accident in Melbourne on Tuesday.
He was 35.
Landsberger was recognized as the person fatally hit by a truck on the intersection of Bridge Highway and Church Avenue in Richmond on Tuesday morning.
He was rushed to hospital with life-threatening accidents, however couldn’t be saved.
The motive force of the truck stopped on the scenes and has spoken to police, with the 45-year previous launched pending additional enquiries. Melbourne Freeway Patrol officers are nonetheless investigating the incident.
Herald Solar chief soccer author Mark Robinson led tributes for Landsberger, describing him as ‘a genuinely good bloke, who was caring and interested in folks’.
“Sam Landsberger had an unlimited future in journalism and took large strides early on,” Robinson mentioned.
“He beloved the sport and understood it, and he revered his craft. He was such a helpful member of Melbourne’s sports activities journalism world, somebody who might cowl all facets of footy. And other people trusted him.”
“This tragedy is a devastating loss for Sam’s household, pals and colleagues on the Herald Solar and the sporting codes he coated with such ardour,” mentioned Herald Solar editor Sam Weir.
“He was an lively and gifted soccer and cricket journalist, who lit up the newsroom. Sam excelled in all the pieces he did, from breaking the large tales to knowledgeable evaluation on Fox Footy. He was well-loved and well-respected and had an unbelievable profession forward of him. Our ideas exit to his household. Sam will probably be deeply missed.”
Starting on the newspaper in 2010, Landsberger gained the distinguished Clinton Grybas Rising Expertise Award because the AFL media’s finest younger expertise in 2013, in addition to the Walkley Younger Journalist of the 12 months.
In 2022, he gained a Quill award for his reporting revealing Essendon’s newly appointed CEO Andrew Thorburn’s hyperlinks to controversial anti-LGBTQ church Metropolis on a Hill, which led to Thorburn’s pressured resignation the day after his appointment was introduced.
In 2024, he was a panellist on Fox Footy’s Midweek Deal with program, with co-hosts Jay Clark and Glenn McFarlane, who additionally labored alongside Landsberger on the Herald Solar, paying tribute.
“He was an outstanding author, a pleasure to learn, a fearless journo and a ball of vitality on the tv with Fox Footy,” Clark mentioned.
“He was the star of our Midweek Deal with and an unbelievable good friend, who all the time made you smile. I’ll miss him a lot and our telephone conversations that all the time went too lengthy.”
“Sam was one of many brightest younger stars in Australian sports activities journalism,” McFarlane mentioned.
“He shone by means of together with his distinctive work ethic, his prodigious expertise and his eagerness to chase the yarn with out worry however all the time with compassion. He cared deeply about his craft and we cared deeply about him.”
Information of Landsberger’s tragic demise has led to an outpouring of tributes all through the footy world, with the much-respected journalist remembered as ‘an absolute star of our occupation’ by colleagues.
Having labored extensively reporting on cricket in addition to AFL, star gamers Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch had been additionally amongst these to specific their condolences.
Along with his reporting, Landsberger was additionally well-known and admired for his each day posts on X in the course of the Olympics informing sports activities followers of begin instances and occasions for all Australians in motion.
Landsberger’s father Jake served for many years as a membership physician on the Western Bulldogs, together with throughout their drought-breaking 2016 premiership season.
