1957 NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs season explained

Competition:NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs
Season:1957
Winners:Auburn
Premiers:Canterbury-Marrickville
Best Player:Len Quested
Nextseason:1958

The 1957 NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs season was the inaugural season of football in New South Wales under the administration of the federation since its breakaway from the NSW Soccer Football Association in January 1957. The season officially kicked off with the William Kennard Cup, a pre-season tournament held in Lidcombe under lights, a novelty for the time. This was the precursor to the highly successful Ampol Cup which sponsored similar cups in other federations throughout Australia. The home and away league season began in April with ten teams until Gladesville-Ryde joined after five rounds. The campaign was then rescheduled to accommodate and it also consisted of a finals series to decide the Division One champions of New South Wales. The season also held the first ever competition of the newly created Federation Cup.

Canterbury-Marrickville were regular season premiers after twenty rounds of competition. Auburn however defeated Canterbury-Marrickville 4–3 in the dying stages of the grand final at the Sydney Sports Ground in front of a crowd of 8,440 to become the federation's first ever champions.

Hakoah were the inaugural champions of the William Kennard Cup and Canterbury-Marrickville backed up their regular season premiership with a 4–2 win over Gladesville-Ryde in the final of the Federation Cup.

Clubs

Club Ground Colours
Maroon 1st
Auburn Green and Gold 1st
Bankstown Bankstown Oval, Bankstown Green and Gold 1st
Blue and Gold 1st
Concord Black 1st
Eastern Suburbs ? ? 1st
Gladesville-Ryde Gladesville Sports Ground Amber and Black 1st
Sky Blue and White 1st
Lane Cove Blue and Gold 1st
Sydney Athletics Field, Moore Park Sky Blue 1st
Sydney Austral Red, White and Blue 1st

William Kennard Cup

This tournament was a pre-season cup and first official tournament of the newly created federation. It made use of night matches, the first of its kind for any code in Australia.[1]

Preliminary Rounds

Team 1 Score Team 2
Sydney Austral 2–1 Auburn
3–1 APIA
Lane Cove 2–1 Bankstown
Sydney Austral 3–0 Prague

Finals

Federation Premiership

Table and results

Finals

Grand final

Fixtures and results

Federation Cup

This was the first year contesting the Federation Cup

Source: Wayback Machine SoccerAust [2]

References

General
Specific

Notes and References

  1. Web site: A Soccer Fan's Forgotten Dream: The William Kennard Cup. Hughes. Anthony Hughes. The Australian Society for Sports History. 13 June 2023.
  2. Web site: NSW Federation Cup 1957 . socceraust.co.uk . 13 June 2023 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20230416173015/http://www.socceraust.co.uk/1957/NSW/Cup/fixtures.html . 16 April 2023.