‘An accident waiting to happen’: experts call for Australian rules football safety overhaul after player death

The pitch at the Lalor oval where Melbourne teacher Nathan Fitzgerald suffered a critical head injury while playing football. Photograph: James Ross/AAP View image in fullscreen The pitch at the Lalor oval where Melbourne teacher Nathan Fitzgerald suffered a critical head injury while playing football. Photograph: James Ross/AAP ‘An accident waiting to happen’: experts call for Australian rules football safety overhaul after player death Concrete-based cricket pitches, like that on which Nathan Fitzgerald received fatal blows to the head, are ‘totally unsafe’, concussion advocate says Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia must finally deal with a deadly risk that has plagued its native football code for more than 120 years, sports safety advocates say, after the death of a suburban Aussie rules footballer. Nathan Fitzgerald, a 27-year-old school teacher, died in a Melbourne hospital on Monday after a horror accident on Saturday in which it is believed the Epping reserves grade footballer clashed heads with another player while tackling an opponent and received a second blow to the head as he fell, before striking his head a third time on a concrete-based cricket pitch in the middle of the ground. Fitzgerald’s death sent shock waves through his community of family, friends, teammates, colleagues and students, with the school at which he taught describing him as “deeply loved, valued and respected by all of us”. The Epping Football Netball Club president, Luke De Vincentis, said on Monday that he hoped the “shock”, “confusion” and “heartbreak” of the amateur sportsman’s death would mean that the way cricket pitches are covered would “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,” he told ABC local radio. View image in fullscreen In tribute to Nathan Fitzgerald, AFL and community clubs will wear black armbands this weekend. Photograph: Epping Football Club Even at the elite level, Australian Football League matches are played on ovals shared with cricket clubs – but at a grassroots level, many clubs have pitches with a concrete base rather than turf. In the local government area where Fitzgerald’s final match was played, the City of Whittlesea, there are 16 such “multipurpose ovals” with concrete-based cricket wickets. The concrete-based pitch on the Lalor oval on which he died was covered with “a multilayered synthetic surface”, that a council spokesperson said was “designed to provide a safe level playing surface” and met AFL/Cricket Australia performance standards. Dr Alan Pearce, a neurophysiologist whose primary research focus is on sports-related concussion, said accidents in contact sports were inevitable and that a coroner’s report would be required to determine the exact cause of Fitzgerald’s death and make any recommendations to try to prevent similar fatalities. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “[But] common