Sam Landsberger dead

[Grantysghost]

This one has really knocked the wind out of my sails. Terrible news.

Same, I'm genuinely shocked.

[MrMahatma]

Feck.

RIP.

[Bulldog Revolution]

I can only echo what others have said - terrible news - seemed a principled sports journo

[Sedat]

This is so incredibly sad. Sam had such a positive mindset - what a devastating tragedy to befall his family, friends and work colleagues.

Strength and love to anyone here who knew him and who are feeling his loss today.

[G-Mo77]

Shocking news. One of the very few I liked in the media.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Devastating. He seemed like a really genuine, hard working man. High integrity in an industry devoid of it.

He had so much more to give. This is just horrific news.

RIP Sam. Forever young.

[angelopetraglia]

This has hit me like a ton of bricks. We have lost one of our own. I never met Sam, but felt like I knew him, as I read every article he wrote and everything he put out on Twitter/X.

Life is so cruel sometimes.

[angelopetraglia]

Tom Morris

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon begins his speech at the AFLW season launch with a tribute to Sam Landsberger.

“I would like to acknowledge as we gather together as a football family, this afternoon we were informed we had lost an important member of that family.

I was extremely shocked and terribly saddened to hear of the passing of Herald Sun journalist Sam Landsberger.

Sam was a bright and tenacious football writer, a passionate Bulldogs supporter and was equally passionate about his craft and his newspaper.

Sam was a great journalist, and even better person.

Sam was a friend of many at the AFL and our clubs and our thoughts and the thoughts of the football world are with Sam’s family and all of Sam’s News Corp colleagues.

Rest in peace, Sam.”

[whythelongface]

Horrible news. RIP Sam.

[angelopetraglia]

Sam Landsberger's last tweet.

"Two Rising Star nominations to go. Joel Freijah must get one of them. Hard to believe the Horsham Saints boy went at pick 45. And reckon suspension will cost Sam Darcy the gong … not Harley Reid."

He was a passionate Bulldog man to the end.

[lemmon]

Ah man, he was one of the good ones. Rest easy Sam

[Grantysghost]

Sam Landsberger's last tweet.

"Two Rising Star nominations to go. Joel Freijah must get one of them. Hard to believe the Horsham Saints boy went at pick 45. And reckon suspension will cost Sam Darcy the gong … not Harley Reid."

He was a passionate Bulldog man to the end.

Man that's a kicker.

[Eastdog]

Just terrible.

I'm the same age as Sam. Just far too young.

My condolences to the Landsberger family and friends.

[comrade]

Bevo started his presser paying tribute to Sam.

[Axe Man]

Sam Landsberger?s father Jake talks his son?s final moments after tragic death

Sam Landsberger was talking to his mother Anne on his *mobile when he was struck and killed by a truck on Tuesday morning.

A devastated Jake Landsberger, Sam?s father, confirmed the tragic circumstances after the family was inundated with hundreds of messages of tribute for their beloved son.

The truck driver that fatally struck the respected Herald Sun sports journalist has been charged after he allegedly refused to provide police with a blood sample.

Jake said there was some comfort that his son?s final moments were spent with his mother.

?Anne was on the phone with Sam when it happened, heard the hit, she heard the commotion, and we?ve been beside ourselves worrying whether she actually possibly distracted him,? Jake said.

?Anne was talking to him as he was walking down across the road to go and meet (his friend and former Herald Sun colleague) Nick Smart.

??The next thing there was commotion, a stranger picked up the phone, and said: ?Who am I talking to?. Anne said: ?I?m Sam?s mother, who are you?.

?And he said, ?I?m sorry to say but your son has just been hit by a vehicle ? he?s lying on the ground?. The man conversed with Sam initially until he lost consciousness.??

Sam, 35, was taken to The Alfred hospital and did not survive an operation.

The man and the family messaged again on Wednesday. ?He messaged us and said, ?I told Sam I was on the phone with his mother and he was at peace knowing that he was communicating with you through me?.??

The family on Wednesday dealt with the coroner and their rabbi in preparation for Monday?s planned funeral. He said the family was alerted to the police charges by their daughter, Jess, late on Wednesday.

?It?s made us angry,? Jake said. He said the family was ?numb? and ?disbelieving? and had taken comfort from the messages sent from sporting people and work colleagues.

?I can?t put into words the comfort, the joy and the pride we are getting from that,? Jake said.

?By the time we both took two sleeping pills to go to bed about 9pm on Tuesday, I personally had received in excess of 250 messages and Anne probably the same,? Jake said.

?The tributes, watching AFL360, seeing The Tackle had been postponed, the stories all over the media ? I said to Anne while we sat at our table bawling our eyes out, I wish I could go back to the morgue in the coroner?s court, just wake Sam up briefly and say, ?Sam, look how much you were loved, look how much you were admired?.

?Because he had no idea. He did not realise. I spoke to him so many times about this being his dream job, I kept saying you?ve achieved your dream and he?d keep looking at me and say, ?Yeah, thanks dad?. He was very self-deprecating.

?The degree to what we?ve seen has blown us to smithereens.?

He spoke of a young boy who loved the Bulldogs, who always wanted to be a journalist and who had work ethic that often would see him working until 3am and 4am on research.

?He just loved the paper (Herald Sun) and the TV,?? Jake said.

The long-time Bulldogs club doctor, Jake said Sam would join him at the footy club from when he was six years old, and they shared a wonderful moment when the Bulldogs won the 2016 premiership. ?This is a nightmare for all of us,?? he said. ?We loved him so much.

?I remember saying to *patients ? and we?re living it now ? I remember saying, a parent should never bury one of their children. And that?s now us.

?Anne?s mother passed away in New Zealand two or three months ago, she was 94. Not this age (Sam was 35). It?s indescribable. We constantly look at each other and we think, look at what we?ve lost and what he?s lost in the future because of one stupid thing.?


JAY CLARK AND GLENN MCFARLANE PAY TRIBUTE TO SAM LANDSBERGER
?It is with incredibly heavy hearts we go to air tonight after losing our great mate, Sammy Landsberger, in a tragic accident in Richmond on Tuesday.?

?He was scheduled to be sitting at the desk with us tonight because he is one of the best footy reporters in the country.

?We loved Sammy. We loved his energy, his enthusiasm, his fearlessness, his nose for a great footy yarn, but above all, we loved his company.

?We will miss you, mate.

?Our thoughts are with the Landsberger family. Our hearts are breaking for his parents, Jake and Anne. Deepest condolences from everyone at the Herald Sun and Fox Footy.

?We were lucky to call Sam a friend, and he will forever shine bright in our memory.

?Rest in Peace, Sam.?

- Jay Clark

?An old mentor once said to me there were three key ingredients to being a successful journalist: courage, compassion and connection."

?If you have one of them, you can make a living. If you have two of them, you can make a career; and if you have three of them, wow that puts you into that rarefied air.

?We all know that Sammy had the trifecta and that?s why he was respected and loved in equal doses.

?He could write the razor-sharp news story that would shake the industry, but he would always approach it with compassion and care.

?His compassion came out in his longer reads ? where he wouldn?t waste a word and you would desperately want more at the end of it.

?And the connection part stands out the most.

?He cared deeply about his family, and our hearts go out to them.

?He cared about his working family. And he cared about the game and the industry.

?Sammy, we?ll miss you mate.?

- Glenn McFarlane