Frank Farrell (rugby league)

Frank Farrell

Personal information
Full name	Francis Michael Farrell
Nickname	Bumper
Born	16 September 1916 Surry Hills, New South Wales
Died	23 April 1985(1985-04-23) (aged 68) Warriewood, New South Wales
Playing information
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1938–51 Newtown 250 24 0 0 72 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1939–50 New South Wales 17 1 0 0 3 1946–48 Australia 4 0 0 0 0
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 1945–51 Newtown 118 70 5 43 59

Francis Michael "Bumper" Farrell (16 September 1916 – 23 April 1985) was an Australian premiership winning and national representative rugby league footballer. A prop forward, his long club career was with the Newtown Bluebags from 1938 to 1951 with four Test appearances for the Australian national side between 1946 and 1948. Outside of football he was a policeman in the New South Wales force; he rose through the ranks and was stationed in Sydney's tough inner-city suburbs, where he earned a reputation as feared and revered detective in the Vice Squad.

Farrell was the great-grandson of an Irish convict named Patrick Farrell who was shipped to the Sydney in 1837 for stealing a pig. His father, Sydney-born Reginald Francis Farrell (1889–1983), was a jeweller and his mother, Scottish-born Margaret Theresa Wynne (1886–1977), an ironing lady. His parents were married in 1913. Frank, their second child, was born at St. Margaret's Hospital in Surry Hills, an inner suburb of Sydney. He was brought up in the tough Sydney city suburbs of Redfern, Tempe and Marrickville. Frank was educated at Patrician Brothers' school, Redfern and Marist College Kogarah, and remained a committed Roman Catholic throughout his life.

Frank Farrell married Phyllis Dorothy Read (1912–1981) on 11 November 1944 and had two sons and two daughters.

Farrell was a rugby league footballer with a long sporting career. He rose through the ranks to become The Greatest Bluebag of them all. Graded in 1936, he made his début for the Newtown Rugby League Football Club's first-grade team in the 1938 NSWRFL season. He played his entire New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership career of over 250 games with the Newtown club. He made his state representative debut for New South Wales against Queensland in 1939 and would go on to play thirteen career matches for his state. He became captain of the club in 1942, leading them to victory in the 1943 NSWRFL season Premiership Final against North Sydney. One of Farrell's closest and lifelong friends, Frank Hyde, was his opposing captain that day.