Frank Cheadle

Frank Cheadle

Personal information
Full name	Francis Bowman Cheadle
Born	7 November 1885 Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Died	12 May 1916(1916-05-12) (aged 30) Armentières, France
Playing information
Rugby union
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P Newtown
Rugby league
Position	Centre
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1908–10 Newtown 17 2 8 0 22 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1907–08 New South Wales 4 0 0 0 0 1908–09 Australia 5 0 0 0 0

Frank Cheadle (1885–1916) was an Australian pioneering rugby league footballer and soldier who fell in World War I. A New South Wales interstate and Australian international representative centre, he was reputedly the first Sydney rugby union player to sign with the new breakaway league in its earliest formative days in late 1907. He played for New South Wales in the very first rugby match run by the newly created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.

Born in Wollongong, New South Wales, Cheadle's family moved to Sydney when he was young. He grew up in the inner-western suburbs of Marrickville and Stanmore and was educated at Fort Street High School. He was playing rugby union with the Newtown RUFC in 1906 and on the verge of national selection when he signed with the new rugby league code.

Cheadle played in the inaugural series of matches between New South Wales and Baskerville's touring "All Golds" in 1907. Part of Newtown's original rugby league team of 1908, he debuted for Australia in the inaugural Tests in early 1908 against those same New Zealanders on the homeward leg of their trip to England and back. Cheadle is listed on the Australian Player Register as kangaroo No. 2'. He was selected in the inaugural Kangaroo tour of 1908-09 but took part in only seven tour matches and no Tests. His final Test appearance was against New Zealand in 1909 in Australia and by the end of 1910 his club career was also over.