Dr Jake Landsberger says it is devastating to think his son Sam “is not with us anymore”. The heartbroken father says he would love to show the talented young journalist the endless flow of tributes from colleagues and the AFL community tot him since his death on Tuesday. Sam Landsberger died in an accident on Tuesday.
“I just keep saying to my wife this morning I wish I could just grab him one more time, wake him up and say, ‘have a look at all these tributes that are happening for you over the last 12 hours, because it is incredible’,” Jake Landsberger said. Sam, 35, passed away after he was struck by a truck crossing the road at the intersection of Bridge Road and Church Street in Richmond about 10.20am on Tuesday.
His loss has been felt heavily across the Melbourne sporting community. Landsberger said his son was an “unbelievable young man” who had a passion for journalism, sport and the Western Bulldogs. The pair were thick as thieves for more than two decades at Whitten Oval, where Jake served as the club doctor for the Bulldogs.
“He was passionate about the footy, he went to every game with me,” Landsberger said. “He was in the rooms with me from the age of about five or six every week. “He drove home with me after games, he sometimes went to training with me, so he loved his footy, he loved his sport.
” That united love of the Bulldogs would bring the family a series of unforgettable memories in the drought-breaking premiership year of 2016. The first was Sam leaning over the fence and hugging his dad “so badly that he almost choked me to death” when the Bulldogs beat Greater Western Sydney in the 2016 preliminary final. “Then at the grand final he sat with my wife, Anne, in the general MCG section and then came down into the rooms, we celebrated together and then went to the function together and went to the oval the next day together.
“And then the other highlight from that perspective was each member of staff at the club was allowed to bring the premiership cup home. “He popped over here for lunch, and we’ve got beautiful photographs of us sitting in the courtyard at the table having lunch with the premiership cup.” Being around elite football throughout his childhood sparked an idea in Sam that would manifest during year 11 at Melbourne High School – he told his father he wanted to become a sports journalist.
“I remember me saying to him, ‘that’s a hell of an achievement if you can pull it off because 99.9 per cent of people who do journalism end up driving an Uber because they don’t get a job’,” his father said. Despite his family’s concerns, Sam excelled in his chosen profession.
He started at local Leader newspapers before becoming an integral part of the sporting team at the Herald Sun . He won countless awards, including the Walkley Young Journalist of the Year in 2013 and later a sports news Quill in 2023 for revealing Essendon CEO Andrew Thorburn’s links to the controversial church City on a Hill . Thorburn stood down the following day.
He was especially proud of an investigative piece in 2022 that exposed a secret AFL report into the treatment of female umpires. “The relationships that he built, the way that he was able to write, all my patients that I have known for years, kept saying how much they loved reading his stories because he had this knack of writing such readable prose,” his father said. “Now, I don’t know where he got that from because it certainly didn’t come from anyone else in the family, but it was an incredible talent because we loved reading him and so did all our friends and colleagues.
” Sam was a relentless networker and always insightful and enjoyable company. His father said he was on his way to meet friend and former colleague Nick Smart for brunch when the accident happened. Smart would later post an emotional tribute to his dear friend on social media.
“‘Be there in 10’, you texted me this morning as I sat at a cafe on Church St. 25 minutes passed by, and I crankily replied, ‘where the f..
. are you?’” he wrote. “It’s just the way we talked to each other.
If I knew it was to be the last time I would have told you how much I loved and cared for you, but I know you already knew that.” Landsberger said the family were “very, very proud” of what Sam had achieved through his hard work and the diligence. “It was nothing new for him from a work perspective to be working til 1, 2, 3 o’clock in the morning, just so that he could get everything right.
” Sam’s journalistic talents extended beyond covering footy for News Corp. He was sent to India and England to write about cricket and covered tennis during the Australian Open. “He had fantastic relationships with everyone he worked with, but especially the athletes that he looked after,” his father said.
“He had a very close relationship with Glenn Maxwell, who has put tributes up online, with Aaron Finch, and he was incredibly close with Shane Warne. He was Warnie’s ghostwriter at the Herald Sun. “All of the sporting people that he worked with were very, very close to him.
I have personally received in excess of 200 messages in the last 14-15 hours from sports people and colleagues. “He had a talent to do pretty much anything he wanted to. It is so hard to think he is not here anymore.
” Tributes from the wider sport and media communities have continued to flow for Sam. Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge opened his press conference on Wednesday by offering his condolences. “Our love and emotions go out to .
.. the Landsberger family on the passing of Sam, obviously in a really challenging set of circumstances,” Beveridge said.
Cricketer Glenn Maxwell said he was “truly devastated”. “My thoughts go out to his family, loved ones and anyone who had the pleasure of spending time with him,” Maxwell wrote on social media. “We’ve lost one of the really good ones.
” Former Australian cricket captain Aaron Finch said it was “so sad to hear the news of [his] passing”. “He was a great journalist, and someone everyone had a lot of time and respect for,” Finch wrote on social media. Anyone who witnessed the incident, has CCTV, dashcam footage or any other information that could assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.
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