| Year: | 1916 |
| Competition: | New South Wales Rugby Football League |
| Teams: | 8 |
| Count: | 2nd |
| Mpcount: | 2nd |
| Matches: | 57 |
| Points: | 1174 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Charles Fraser (94) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Frank Burge (22) |
| Prevseason Link: | 1915 NSWRFL season |
| Prevseason Year: | 1915 |
| Nextseason Link: | 1917 NSWRFL season |
| Nextseason Year: | 1917 |
The 1916 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the ninth season of Sydney’s top-level professional rugby league competition, Australia’s first. Eight teams from across the city contested during the season which culminated in a grand final between Balmain and South Sydney.[1]
Three teams dominated the season, Balmain, South Sydney and Glebe. With two rounds to go, each of the three teams had a genuine chance of winning the premiership with each separated by half a win. This created an interesting scenario with Balmain (20 points, first) facing South Sydney (18 points, third) and Glebe (19 points, second) facing Eastern Suburbs who were placed fourth at the time. As it turned out, Balmain lost 11–7 to Souths, leaving the competition wide open for Glebe to take the competition lead by one point. However, Glebe ended up losing crucially to Eastern Suburbs 8–5 on the same day. With both Balmain and Souths now equal on 20 points with one game to play, it would have taken a miracle for Glebe to come back given that they were still on 19 points. All three teams won their final games, but it was equal placed Balmain and South Sydney that would play off in a premiership decider.
The teams remained unchanged from the previous season.
| width=20 abbr="Position×" | width=175 | Team | width=20 abbr="Played" | Pld | width=20 abbr="Won" | W | width=20 abbr="Drawn" | D | width=20 abbr="Lost" | L | width=20 abbr="Points for" | PF | width=20 abbr="Points against" | PA | width=20 abbr="Points difference" | PD | width=20 abbr="Points" | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Balmain | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 181 | 100 | +81 | 22 | ||||||||||
| 2 | South Sydney | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 170 | 117 | +53 | 22 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Glebe | 14 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 217 | 106 | +111 | 21 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Eastern Suburbs | 14 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 170 | 89 | +81 | 16 | ||||||||||
| 5 | North Sydney | 14 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 108 | 189 | -81 | 10 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Newtown | 14 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 134 | 153 | -19 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Annandale | 14 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 94 | 163 | -69 | 8 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Western Suburbs | 14 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 92 | 249 | -157 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Balmain | Position | South Sydney |
|---|---|---|
| Wally Dymant | ||
| WG | Gordon Vaughan | |
| C. Phelps | ||
| CE | Rex Norman | |
| Roy Norman | ||
| Arthur Halloway (c) | HB | |
| Roy Almond | ||
| John Kerwick | ||
| Edward Burnicle | Owen McCarthy | |
| SR | Arthur Oxford | |
| D. Stewart | George Moore | |
| Bill Groves | ||
Balmain 5 (Try: Arthur Halloway. Goal: Charles Fraser)
defeated South Sydney 3 (Try: Gordon Vaughan)