Francis Michael "Bumper" Farrell (16 September 1917 – 23 April 1985) was an Australian premiership winning and international representative rugby league footballer.

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 a feared and revered detective in the Vice Squad.

His father, Sydney-born Reginald Francis Farrell (1889–1983), was a jeweller, while his mother, Scottish-born Margaret Theresa Wynne (1886–1977) was an ironing lady.

Frank was educated at Patrician Brothers' school, Redfern and Marist College Kogarah,[1] and remained a committed Roman Catholic throughout his life.

Decimated by injuries and the active-duty call up of servicemen Len Smith and Herb Narvo who had starred for them all season the Bluebags were beaten by Balmain 16–19 in a Final.

Balmain again prevailed in a low scoring match when their representative centre Joe Jorgenson kicked two late penalty goals to give the Tigers a 12–8 win.

[5] In a famous incident during a game on 28 July 1945, he was accused of biting off a portion of St. George player Bill McRitchie's ear during a match at Henson Park.

Other officials who served alongside him at times of various crises recall the way in which his loyalty, service and dedication helped guide the Newtown Jets club through whatever travails it had to face.

However, articles including two published by the ABC, and oral history interviews with long-term residents of the Kings Cross precinct uncover the dark underside as the community remember and recite Farrell's legendary status for his harassment and intimidation of local business people and residents, particularly anyone considered "bohemian",[12][13][14] "Some of the gambling dives were chockablock with thuggish cops, like Bumper Farrell, whose reputation for turncoat behaviour was legendary.

Farrell hunted vagrants (and anyone he didn't like the look of, myself included) to boost the score of arrests at Paddington Police Station, while turning a blind eye to grander villainy".

[18] This wasn't Hoffman's first experience with the legal system; after a few run-ins with the police force and allegedly threatening to expose details of corruption, this was second time around in a court room for her since 1955.

Bill Jenkings, a well-known Australian writer and newspaper reporter, refused to believe allegations about the involvement of Frank "Bumper" Farrell in corrupt activities – having known him personally for 40 years.

Jenkings said in his biography As Crime Goes By.. (Ironbark Press, 1992) that the Queens of Sydney's underworld, Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, constantly earned Bumper Farrell's wrath.

In 2008, Rugby League's centenary year in Australia, Farrell was named at prop forward in both the NSW Police and Newtown Jets Teams of the Century.