Ryan James Fitzgerald (born 16 October 1976) is an Australian radio personality, television presenter, comedian and former Australian rules footballer. After being drafted from the South Adelaide Football Club, he made his

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...

debut for Sydney in 2000, before being traded to Adelaide, where he played eight games in 2002. Fitzgerald later appeared in ''

Big Brother Australia 2004 ''Big Brother 2004'', also known as ''Big Brother 4'', was the fourth season of the Australian reality television series '' Big Brother'', and was aired on Network Ten, starting on Sunday 2 May 2004, with the housemates entering the day before, ...

'', beginning a wider media career in television on Channel 10's Saturday night AFL show '' Before The Game''.

Early life

Fitzgerald attended

Wirreanda High School Wirreanda Secondary School is a Government of South Australia public high school in Morphett Vale, Adelaide, South Australia. The school caters for students from Years 7 to 12. The school was established in 1977 and features a variety of spec ...

and played junior football for Port Noarlunga.

AFL career: 2000–2002

A tall forward drafted by the Sydney Swans with the 4th overall selection in the 1998 AFL Draft from

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. O ...

club, South Adelaide, Fitzgerald was unable to make his AFL debut until 2000 due to a shoulder injury. On debut, Fitzgerald kicked five goals and "looked set for a big career". He played nine more games for the rest of the season. At the start of

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

, Fitzgerald injured his knee, requiring a reconstruction that resulted in him missing the entire season. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, he was traded to the Adelaide Crows, but only played eight games for the Crows before retiring from AFL football due to another ACL injury that required a reconstruction.

Television and radio career

Fitzgerald has appeared on '' The Project'', '' Studio 10'', '' Before The Game'', '' Reality Check'', ''

All Star Family Feud ''All Star Family Feud'' was an Australian game show which aired on Network Ten from 14 March 2016 until 6 May 2018. The series, which is a spin off of ''Family Feud'', sees celebrities compete in teams to raise money for their chosen charity. '' ...

'', '' The Front Bar'' and ''

Hughesy, We Have a Problem ''Hughesy, We Have a Problem'' was an Australian comedy panel television series which premiered on Network 10 on 30 January 2018. The program was hosted by Dave Hughes, who along with a panel of comedians, attempted to solve problems of viewers ...

''. Fitzgerald was a contestant in ''

'', and finished in fourth place at the conclusion of the show. After that he became co-host of the Adelaide

Nova 91.9 Nova 919 (call sign: 5ADL) is a commercial radio station operating in Adelaide, Australia, owned by NOVA Entertainment. Along with its sister stations Nova 100 Melbourne, Nova 96.9 Sydney, Nova 106.9 Brisbane and Nova 93.7 Perth, Nova now ...

Breakfast show and made occasional appearances on ''

Before The Game (AFL) ''Before the Game'' was an Australian rules football comedy panel television show which aired on Network Ten on 1 March 2003 until 27 September 2013. The show was hosted by Andrew Maher with regular panelists Mick Molloy, Dave Hughes, Anthony ...

''. In 2005, he had a new role as a co-host on the new Friday night

Big Brother Australia ''Big Brother Australia'' (also known simply as ''Big Brother'') is an Australian reality show based on the international '' Big Brother'' format created by John de Mol. Following the premise of other versions of the format, the show features ...

show ''Friday Night Live'' with fellow ''Big Brother 2004'' contestant

Bree Amer Bree Amer (born 17 August 1982 ) is an Australian television personality. Biography Amer was a contestant on '' Big Brother Australia 2004'' from the Gold Coast, in Queensland, and the first housemate of '' Big Brother Australia'' to re-enter ...

, which became a stand-alone show in its own right in 2006 as ''

Friday Night Games ''Friday Night Games'' was a spin-off from ''Big Brother Australias Friday Night Live, hosted by Mike Goldman (Blue Coordinator only in the Grand Final) with Bree Amer (Green Coordinator) and Ryan "Fitzy" Fitzgerald (Yellow Coordinator) and w ...

''. This show then returned as ''Friday Night Download'', featuring internet videos. It was cancelled early in its second season. In October 2010, Fitzgerald announced that he would be leaving

Breakfast to be a part of Nova's drive show Fitzy and Wippa, which then became the

Nova 96.9 Nova 96.9 (call sign: 2SYD) is a commercial radio station operating in Sydney, Australia. The station is owned by NOVA Entertainment along with sister station, smoothfm 95.3 Audience In 2014 Nova had a 4% share of the Sydney audience on a ...

Sydney breakfast show. Fitzy and Wippa were nominated for the 2011 Australian Commercial Radio Awards in the best on-air team, Metro FM category. Fitzgerald is also a regular player in the

E. J. Whitten Legends Game The E. J. Whitten Legends Game was an annual Australian sports entertainment Australian rules football match. It is played for charity played as an all-star game. Retired star players are reunited, along with selected non-footballing celebrities, ...

. On 14 October 2012 (episode seven), he made his acting debut on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

show '' House Husbands''. In 2016, Fitzgerald joined radio co-host Michael Wipfli to host the

show '' 20 to 1''. Fitzgerald also appear on '' The Front Bar'' filling in the absence of either Mick Molloy or Sam Pang.

References

External links

*
Ryan Fitzgerald's page at agent W Sports & Media
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Ryan 1976 births Adelaide Football Club players Australian television presenters Nova (radio network) announcers Big Brother (Australian TV series) contestants Living people Australian rules footballers from Adelaide South Adelaide Football Club players Sydney Swans players