page_title: Frank Farrell (rugby league)
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Frank Farrell (rugby league) / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: 1943 Newtown Jets premiership rugby team Back row: F Speechley, Tom Kirk, Len Smith, Keith Phillips, Gordon McLennan, Herb Narvo Front row: Paddy Budgen, Norm Jacobson, Charles Cahill, Frank Farrell, Jimmy Brailey, Tom Nevin, D Fullerton
context_page_description: Francis Michael "Bumper" Farrell was an Australian premiership winning and international representative rugby league footballer. A prop forward, his long club career with the Newtown Bluebags was 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.
context_section_description: Frank Farrell died suddenly of a heart attack at his home on 23 April 1985. His funeral service was attended by many police and football colleagues and was widely reported in the national media. He was later buried at Mona Vale Cemetery on 3 May 1985. Frank Farrell was survived by his four children and many grandchildren.
  Says Terry Williams in his History of Newtown book called 'Through Blue Eyes':- "He was no saint, but his flaws made him all the more loved. Bumper neither sought nor claimed perfection, but the qualities he brought to Newtown on and off the field added lustre to the game and the club and helped make Newtown what it is today. Frank Farrell passed away in 1985, but he had entered the pantheon of Bluebag Legends well before then and remains the ultimate Newtown icon." His death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald described Frank Farrell as "The Greatest Bluebag of All".
  Farrell's grandson Jack Elsegood became a prominent rugby league footballer as well.
  In 2008, Rugby League's centenary year in Australia, he was named at prop forward in both the NSW Police and Newtown Jets Teams of the Century. He was named captain in the Newtown Team.
  Farrell's name was immortalised in Farrell Avenue, in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst. He was further immortalised by Sydney folk punk rockers The Rumjacks  in their song "Sober and Godless." In the song, from the album of the same name, the singer recounts how "I could dead-lift a barrel, flog the arse aff 'Bumper Farrell..."
caption: Farrell, (front row, centre) in the Newtown 1943 premiership team
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