TO get to the nub of what makes Michael Cheika tick you need to understand a little about what came before him. The year is 1950 and Joe Cheika – Michael's father – has decided to emigrate to Australia where the government is looking for workers. A Maronite Christian, Cheika has long known the jagged barbs of religious persecution in Lebanon and, besides, there is a strong Lebanese community where he is headed, which dates back to the sugar cane boom of the 1800s. At first he works on the railway, then establishes his own import/export business before becoming a trade advisor to the government. In Sydney, he meets Therese, who comes from the same village, they marry and three children follow, of which Michael is the second.
Life growing up in Coogee – the suburb of Sydney where Michael was raised – centred on two things surfing and rugby. Cheika played both codes league and union but it was at Randwick that he was to make his name playing more than 300 games as No.8 who was powerful and energetic but not particularly skilled with the ball in hand, and certainly not of the requisite quality to become a full international despite being named in the Under-21s early in his career. Rather than hang about waiting for something that wasn't going to happen he opted for a move to France with Castres.
