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 The South Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club that competes in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Known as the ''Panthers'', their home ground is Flinders University StadiumAustralian Football League 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'', beginning a wider media career in television on Channel 10's Saturday night AFL show ''

Before The Game ''Before the Game'' was an Australian rules football comedy Panel game, 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 Hughe ...

''.

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 specia ...

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 governing body for the sport. Originally formed as th ...

club, South Adelaide, Fitzgerald was unable to make his AFL debut until

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

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 Afghanistan ...

, 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 independence from Indonesia and ...

, he was traded to the

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) sinc ...

, 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 ''Studio 10'' is an Australian morning talk show on Network 10. The show airs between 8:30am and noon on weekdays and a highlights show airs between 9:30am and noon on weekends. ''Studio 10'' is broadcast live from Network 10 Studios in Pyr ...

'', ''

'', '' Reality Check'', '' All Star Family Feud'', '' 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 '' Big Brother Australia 2004'', 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, 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, No ...

Breakfast show and made occasional appearances on '' Before The Game (AFL)''. 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 th ...

, which became a stand-alone show in its own right in 2006 as '' Friday Night Games''. 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 ...

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 ne ...

show ''

House Husbands ''House Husbands'' is an Australian television comedy drama. The show debuted on the Nine Network on 2 September 2012. Set in Melbourne, ''House Husbands'' stars Firass Dirani, Gyton Grantley, Rhys Muldoon and Gary Sweet as four fathers who sta ...

''. In 2016, Fitzgerald joined radio co-host

Michael Wipfli Michael "Wippa" Wipfli (born 29 September 1979) is an Australian radio presenter and comedian who is on the Nova 96.9 breakfast show ''Fitzy and Wippa'' with Ryan Fitzgerald. Early life Wippa is the son of John and Christine Wipfli. He has two ...

to host the

show ''

20 to 1 ''20 to One'' (known as ''20 to 1'' before 2016) is an Australian television series on the Nine Network from 2005, that counts down an undefined "top 20" of elements or events of popular culture, such as films, songs, or sporting scandals. The ...

''. Fitzgerald also appear on '' The Front Bar'' filling in the absence of either

Mick Molloy Michael Molloy (born 11 July 1966) is an Australian comedian, writer, producer, actor and television and radio presenter who has been active in radio, television, stand-up and film. He currently hosts '' The Front Bar'' on the Seven Network. ...

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