Phil Charlton (1950-2021) was an Australian former professional

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 11 ...

footballer who played in the 1970s. He played for

Canterbury-Bankstown Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs ...

and Newtown in the NSWRL competition.

Playing career

Charlton made his first grade debut for Canterbury in round 6 against arch-rivals

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

Cumberland Oval Parramatta Stadium was a sports stadium in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, 23 kilometres west of Sydney's central business district. The stadium was the home ground of several western Sydney-based sports teams, at the time of closure t ...

with Canterbury winning 11–5. Charlton played a total of eight seasons at Canterbury and was used infrequently in the first grade team. However he did play in numerous finals campaigns for the club. In 1974, he played in both finals matches as Canterbury reached the grand final that season however he was not selected in the grand final team. He later featured in the 1975 and 1976 finals campaigns. In 1976, he played in Canterbury's narrow loss to Manly in the semi-final. In total, Charlton played a total of 175 games for Canterbury in all grades. In 1979, Charlton signed for the struggling Newtown side which had collected the

Wooden Spoon Wooden Spoon may refer to: * Wooden spoon, implement * Wooden spoon (award) A wooden spoon is an award that is given to an individual or team that has come last in a competition. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous e ...

in 1978. Charlton played in Newtown's round 1 game against South Sydney which Newtown won 7-6 however he never played for the club again in first grade. In 1980, Charlton played for the Campbelltown City Kangaroos. Charlton was the nephew of former Western Suburbs, Eastern Suburbs and Canterbury player

Neville Charlton Neville Charlton, nicknamed "Boxhead" (1928–2014), was an Australian professional 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 ...

. His father Ken Charlton played for Canterbury in the 1940s and 1950s. Charlton's brother Tony played 42 first grade games for Parramatta between 1973 and 1976.

Post playing career

Between 1993 and 1995, Charlton coached Canterbury's reserve grade team. Charlton was awarded life membership at Canterbury in 2007. In 2008, he sat on the football club's board until departing the role in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlton, Phil Newtown Jets players Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Australian rugby league players Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows 1950 births 2021 deaths