Kennedy Cherrington (born 5 January 1999) is an Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer who plays as a for

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

in the

NRL Women's Premiership The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...

and the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

in the

NSWRL Women's Premiership The Harvey Norman Women's Premiership is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. It is the only state wide open age competition for women in New South Wales and is run by New South Wales Rugby League. The NSWRL Women's Premiershi ...

. She previously played

for the

NSW Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state ...

in the

Super W The Super W is a women's rugby union competition held in Australia. The inaugural season was in 2018, when it replaced the former National Women's Rugby Championship. The are the most successful team so far, . Teams Six women's rugby teams c ...

. Also represented Australia at the 2017 Youth Commonwealth Games in the Bahamas. Where her Australian U18s team won Gold. She then represented the Australian Women’s 7s side 2 more times at the 2018 Oceania Games (Fiji) winning Gold and the 2019 Pacific Games (Samoa) winning Silver.

Background

Born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Cherrington grew up in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, where she began playing

for the Rockingham Sharks in 2009. Before switching to rugby union in high school when deemed ineligible to continue playing with the boys after U12s. Cherrington's uncle,

Norm Berryman Norman Rangi Berryman (15 April 1973 – 22 June 2015) was a New Zealand rugby union player who played as a winger and centre. Accessed 1 March 2009 He played one Test for the All Blacks, and represented Northland, the Crusaders and the Chief ...

, was a professional

player who played one Test for the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

. Her cousins,

Anthony Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonia (gens), Antonii'', a ''gens'' (Roman naming conventions, Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were ...

and

Manaia Cherrington Manaia Cherrington (born 2 August 1994) is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays for the Wests Magpies in the New South Wales Cup. He plays at and previously played for the New Zealand Warriors, Wests Tigers and the Cro ...

, are former professional rugby league players who both played in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

Playing career

Rugby union

In 2017, Cherrington represented the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n rugby sevens team at the

Commonwealth Youth Games The Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) is an international multi-sport event organized by the Commonwealth Games Federation. The games were held in the years, mid-way between when the Commonwealth Games are held, until 2008. They continued to be held ...

The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

, winning a gold medal. In 2018, Cherrington joined the

in the

, starting at centre in their 16–13 Grand Final win over the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competition ...

. In 2019, she came off the bench in the Waratahs' 8–5 Super W Grand Final win over Queensland. In November 2019, she was a member of the Australia A squad that toured

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

. In 2020, she began the season playing for the Waratahs before the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Rugby league

In 2020, Cherrington returned to rugby league, joining the

in the

. On 22 September 2020, she was announced as a member of the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

team. In Round 1 of the

2020 NRL Women's season The 2020 NRL Women's Premiership was the third season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Regular season The season operated under a round-robin format, with games played as curtain-raisers to the 2020 NR ...

, she made her debut for the Roosters in an 18–4 win over the

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint- ...

. On 19 October 2019, she was named the NRLW Rookie of the Year. On 25 October 2020, she came off the bench in the Roosters' 10–20 Grand Final loss to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

. On 28 October 2020, Cherrington was named in the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

squad but did not play in their 18–24 loss to Queensland. On 20 February 2021, she represented the Māori All Stars in their 24–0 win over the Indigenous All Stars.

Achievements and accolades

Individual

NRLW The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the National Rugby League (NRL) and is ...

Rookie of the Year: 2020

References

External links

Sydney Roosters profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cherrington, Kennedy 1999 births Living people Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent New Zealand Māori rugby league players Australian female rugby union players Australian female rugby league players Rugby union centres Rugby league locks Sydney Roosters (NRLW) players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby union players from Sydney