| Year: | 1953 |
| Competition: | New South Wales Rugby Football League |
| Teams: | 10 |
| Count: | 14th |
| Mpcount: | 13th |
| Matches: | 93 |
| Points: | 3241 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Ron Rowles (152) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Ian Moir (23) |
| Prevseason Link: | 1952 NSWRFL season |
| Prevseason Year: | 1952 |
| Nextseason Link: | 1954 NSWRFL season |
| Nextseason Year: | 1954 |
The 1953 New South Wales Rugby Football League season was the forty-sixth season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten teams from across the city competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a final between South Sydney and St. George.
| width=175 | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Sydney | 18 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 384 | 278 | +106 | 23 | |
| 2 | St. George | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 313 | 289 | +24 | 22 | |
| 3 | North Sydney | 18 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 421 | 283 | +138 | 21 | |
| 4 | Eastern Suburbs | 18 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 330 | 310 | +20 | 21 | |
| 5 | Newtown | 18 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 292 | 268 | +24 | 20 | |
| 6 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 18 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 252 | 291 | -39 | 20 | |
| 7 | Parramatta | 18 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 271 | 291 | -20 | 17 | |
| 8 | Balmain | 18 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 313 | 377 | -64 | 14 | |
| 9 | Manly-Warringah | 18 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 294 | 393 | -99 | 12 | |
| 10 | Western Suburbs | 18 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 287 | 377 | -90 | 10 |
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=17% | Date and Time | width=17% | Venue | width=11% | Referee | width=7% | Crowd | ||
| Semifinals | |||||||||
| align=left | South Sydney | 5–4 | align=left | North Sydney | 29 August 1953 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Jack O'Brien | 30,392 | |
| align=left | St. George | 25–7 | align=left | Eastern Suburbs | 5 September 1953 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Darcy Lawler | 37,753 | |
| Final | |||||||||
| align=left | South Sydney | 31–12 | align=left | St. George | 12 September 1953 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Darcy Lawler | 44,581 | |
| South Sydney | Position | St. George | |
|---|---|---|---|
| WG | 15. Kevin Hole | ||
| 5. Tommy Ryan | |||
| CE | 44. Merv Lees | ||
| 2. Ross Kite | |||
| 4. Allan Staunton | |||
| HB | 20. Peter Bracken | ||
| 39. Kevin Brown | |||
| 12. Ken Kearney (c) | |||
| 11. Bob Bower | |||
| SR | 10. Barry Passfield | ||
| 4. Jack Rayner (Ca./Co.) | |||
| 6. Les Cowie | 8. Billy Wilson | ||
| Coach | Norm Tipping |
Souths opened the scoring with a penalty goal in the ninth minute kicked by Clive Churchill from 40 yards. The Dragons threatened Souths' line continuously in the next stanza but bombed three tries and then lost some momentum in the 14 minutes before half-time during the absence of centre Merv Lees while he was off the field having stitches to his lip after driving a tooth through it. Souths scored 13 points in this period. Ian Moir capitalised on a spillage of the ball by Pidding behind his own line after a heavy tackle, Churchill then featured when he firstly sent Threlfo in and then set up Moir for his second try. The score at half time was 15–0.
Early in the second half Pidding kicked a penalty and a few minutes later Wilson and Gallagher were sent off for fighting. With Wilson gone Rabbitoh hard-men Rayner and Donoghue then took control and four Souths tries flowed to Woolfe, Dougherty, Hammerton and Moir’s third. Two late Dragons’ tries to Brown and Lees made no difference and South Sydney powered to their fourteenth premiership.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 31
Tries: Moir (3), Woolfe, Threlfo, Dougherty, Hammerton
Goals: Dougherty (4), Churchill (1)
St George Dragons 12
Tries: Lees, Brown
Goals: Pidding (3)
The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 18.Top 5 point scorers
| width=50 | Points | width=200 | Player | width=30 | Tries | width=30 | Goals | width=30 | Field Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 152 | Ron Rowles | 8 | 64 | 0 | |||||
| 114 | Bob Hobbs | 2 | 54 | 0 | |||||
| 99 | Noel Pidding | 3 | 45 | 0 | |||||
| 91 | Norm Stewart | 1 | 44 | 0 | |||||
| 88 | Gordon Clifford | 0 | 44 | 0 |
| width=50 | Tries | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Ian Moir | ||
| 18 | Horrie Toole | ||
| 18 | Ray Preston | ||
| 14 | Barry Stenhouse | ||
| 13 | Peter O'Brien |
| width=50 | Goals | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 64 | Ron Rowles | ||
| 54 | Bob Hobbs | ||
| 45 | Noel Pidding | ||
| 44 | Norm Stewart | ||
| 44 | Gordon Clifford |