Gerard FitzGerald

Gerard FitzGerald
Personal information
Full nameGerard FitzGerald
Date of birth25 July 1957
Original teamDerrinallum
Height/Weight188 cm / 84 kg
Playing career1
YearsClubGames (Goals)
1977Geelong3 (4)
Coaching career
YearsClubGames (W–L–D)
1997-2002
2003
2004
2005-2006
2007-		North Ballarat (VFL)
Springvale
Port Melbourne
North Ballarat Rebels
North Ballarat (VFL)
1 Playing statistics correct to end of 1977 season.

Gerard FitzGerald (born 25 July 1957) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Geelong in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He is most notable as the coach of the North Ballarat Football Club in the Victorian Football League, where he won three premierships and is the league's all-time longest serving coach.

FitzGerald made just three appearances in the Geelong seniors, all in the 1977 VFL season. In his second game he kicked three goals at Princes Park, against a strong Hawthorn team which amassed 191 points.

Between 1980 and 1996, FitzGerald spent more than ten years as the senior coach of country Victorian football teams in Sea Lake, Mortlake and Camperdown.[1] For a time, he was the coach of the Victorian Country Football League representative team.[2] He took over from Alan Ezard as coach of North Ballarat in the VFL in 1997 and remained with the club until the end of the 2002 season. In 2002, he unsuccessfully contested the state seat of Ballarat East for the Liberal Party. He coached Springvale in 2003, then Port Melbourne in 2004, taking the club to the Grand Final. He returned to Ballarat in 2005, and was in charge of the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup in 2005 and 2006, before returning to the North Ballarat VFL club again in 2007. FitzGerald steered North Ballarat to its inaugural VFL premiership in 2008, and then to further premierships in 2009 and 2010. He is still coaching at the club in 2014, his fourteenth season with the Roosters, and sixteenth season as a VFL senior coach overall.

FitzGerald holds the record for coaching the most senior games in VFA/VFL history. FitzGerald surpassed previous record-holder Bill Faul in Round 7, 2014 when he coached his 314th senior game.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Nick Schomburgk (18 May 2014). "Positives the focus for 'Fitzy'". Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  2. ↑ Peter Hanlon (27 May 1992). "Harris aiming to be No. 1". Herald-Sun (Morning ed.) (Melbourne, VIC). p. 74.
  3. ↑ "FitzGerald to break coaching record". Sportingpulse. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2014.