Often known as “that guy from Big Brother that’s on my TV all the time now”, Ryan Fitzgerald is often forgotten as an AFL player, which isn’t too surprising.
“Fitzy” as he’s affectionately known, began his career in the media and second rate reality TV programs off the back of a fairly short-lived AFL career.
Standing at nearly two metres tall, Fitzgerald was a promising young prospect coming through the schooling system and was picked up fourth overall in the 1998 draft.
It was pretty much a whole heap of downhill from there, though.
The big forward was hit with a shoulder injury that delayed his debut to the turn of the century.
He finally made his first AFL appearance for the Swans in 2000, booting five goals and sending commentators and scouts into meltdown as the next big prospect.
He would play just nine more games that year though and only 10 more goals were sent through the sticks off his feet for Sydney, in what turned out to be his one and only season for the club.
Although he was still with the Swans at the start of the next season, a debilitating knee injury ruled him out of the whole year and was subsequently released after getting a reconstruction.
Adelaide Crows would throw him a bone for the ’02 season, but he would only play eight games and kick as many goals in a disappointing tenure.
Another ACL injury would put him on the sidelines once again, but this time, he had to hang up the boots on a career defined by what could have been.
Not be deterred, though, Fitzy has since gone on a media rampage, getting himself a radio show, a bevvy of hosting gigs across more shows than I can remember and, of course, the Big Brother appearance in 2004.
Many believe his performance on that show, where he finished as a fan favourite in fourth spot, was better than most showings he put up on the footy field.
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