Ten rugby league football teams from across the city competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in the first "mandatory" Grand Final played between South Sydney and Newtown.

This season, in a New South Wales versus England match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, referee Aub Oxford watched in disbelief the players fighting around him like street-brawlers before turning his back and walking from the field.

[2] Preston and Kevin Considine combined for fifty-six tries during the season – easily a record for a pair of club wingers.

[4] In spite of Newtown finishing as minor premiers they hadn't beaten South Sydney in either regular season encounter.

Following the grand final, nine players from the NSWRFL were selected in a squad of eighteen to represent Australia in the 1954 Rugby League World Cup in France.