It was one of the first questions Sam Landsberger would ask during the Sunday shifts that were his first foray into journalism, at the former Leader Community Newspapers office in Cheltenham. It came from when the sports editor was given the layouts for the pages. If there was decent space, and if Sam’s notebook was full, as it invariably was, he could spread his wings and write a long piece.
The aspiring young reporter liked to take a peek at the pages. He never saw a half-page he didn’t want to fill. Sam – who died last Tuesday at the age of 36, producing an outpouring of emotion that reflected the esteem in which he was held as an AFL journalist and young man – started writing about amateur football.
He would go to games on Saturdays and bound into the office the next day, brimming with ideas and energy and getting to work on his match reports. This was in 2008. He had called the sports desk during the football season, saying he wanted to be a journalist and was in fact studying journalism at Monash University.
He liked sport and particularly football – he was a Western Bulldogs supporter, he said – and he’d been reading the local paper and wondered if he could come in for a talk. Sam made his way up the stairs of the office on a Wednesday morning. Four days later, having quickly arranged insurance for a work placement from his university, he returned for his first Sunday shift.
He wanted no pay. But, politely, he asked if he could receive feedback on his art.