Lachlan Fitzgibbon (born 5 January 1994) is an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who plays as forward for the

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. He previously played for the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

Background

Fitzgibbon was born in

North Sydney, New South Wales North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore (Sydney), Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the Local government in Australia, local government area of North ...

, Australia and moved to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

at a young age. He played his junior rugby league for the South Newcastle Lions in the

Newcastle Rugby League The Newcastle Rugby League is a local rugby league football competition in Newcastle, Australia. It is one of the oldest rugby league competitions in Australia, founded in 1910. A Newcastle rugby league team, Newcastle representative team was al ...

. He was then signed by the

. Fitzgibbon is the son of nib CEO Mark Fitzgibbon and nephew of

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

Joel Fitzgibbon Joel Andrew Fitzgibbon (born 16 January 1962) is a retired Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives from 1996 to 2022, represen ...

. Lachlan's grandfather is Eric Fitzgibbon who was an MP for the electorate of Hunter.

Playing career

Early career

In 2013 and 2014, Fitzgibbon played for the Newcastle Knights'

NYC New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive wit ...

team.

2015

In 2015, Fitzgibbon moved on to the Knights'

New South Wales Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

team. In round 21 of the

2015 NRL season The 2015 NRL season was the 108th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 18th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand with the annual Auckland Nines, which was followe ...

, he made his

debut for the Knights against the

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since 1999 after a j ...

. This would be Fitzgibbon's only appearance for the first grade team in the

as the club finished last on the table. In August, Fitzgibbon re-signed with the Newcastle club on a two-year contract. On 27 September, he played in the Knights' 2015 New South Wales Cup Grand Final win over the

Wyong Roos The Wyong Rugby League Football Club are an Australian rugby league club based on the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast of New South Wales. The club competed in the New South Wales Cup from 2013 to 2018 and still competes in the Cen ...

Parramatta Stadium Parramatta Stadium was a sports stadium in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, west of Sydney CBD. The stadium was the home ground of several western Sydney-based sports teams, at the time of closure the most notable were the Parramatta E ...

2016

Fitzgibbon made five appearances for Newcastle in the

2016 NRL season The 2016 NRL season was the 109th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 19th season run by the National Rugby League. The season started in New Zealand with the annual Auckland Nines, and was followed by the All Stars Match, ...

as the club finished last for a second consecutive year. He scored his first try in the top grade against

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

in round 13 of the competition.

2017

Fitzgibbon made his first NRL appearance of the

2017 NRL season The 2017 NRL season was the 110th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 20th season run by the National Rugby League. The season started in New Zealand with the annual Auckland Nines, and was followed by the All Stars Match, ...

in round 10, going on to play in 14 matches and scoring 8 tries as the club finished last for a third straight season. In September, he re-signed with Newcastle on a two-year contract until the end of 2019.

2018

Fitzgibbon made 21 appearances and scored nine tries for Newcastle in the

2018 NRL season The 2018 NRL season was the 111th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 21st season run by the National Rugby League. The main competition, known as the 2018 Telstra Premiership due to sponsorship from Telstra, featured 16 team ...

as the club finished 11th on the table.

2019

Fitzgibbon played 21 games and scored five tries for Newcastle in the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

as the club finished a disappointing 11th on the table. At the start of the year, many tipped Newcastle to reach the finals after the club recruited heavily in the off-season.

2020

He made 17 appearances for Newcastle in the

2020 NRL season The 2020 NRL season was the 113th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 23rd season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive year. ; Notes : : : Pre-season ...

including the club's first finals game since 2013 which was an elimination finals loss against South Sydney.

2021

Fitzgibbon only 10 games for Newcastle in the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

and did not play in the club's elimination finals loss against

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

2022

Fitzgibbon was limited to only nine appearances for Newcastle in the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season was the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest ...

as the club finished 14th on the table.

2023

Fitzgibbon made his 100th NRL appearance in March 2023 scoring a try for Newcastle in their 14–12 win over the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...

. In July, Fitzgibbon signed a three-year contract with

side

, starting in 2024.

2024

On 8 June, Fitzgibbon played in Warrington's

2024 Challenge Cup final The 2024 Challenge Cup Final was the 123rd final of the Rugby Football League's Challenge Cup knock-out competition. The final was contested by Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves. This was the first time since 1990 that both teams had met in t ...

defeat against Wigan. Fitzgibbon played 14 matches for Warrington in the 2024 Super League season as the club reached the semi-final before losing to Hull Kingston Rovers.

2025

On 7 June 2025, Fitzgibbon played in Warrington's 8-6 Challenge Cup final loss against Hull Kingston Rovers.

Statistics

*denotes season competing

References

External links

Newcastle Knights profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgibbon, Lachlan 1994 births Living people Australian people of Irish descent Australian rugby league players Newcastle Knights players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league second-rows South Newcastle Lions players Warrington Wolves players 21st-century Australian sportsmen