During the pre-season, Queensland and Australian international representative forward,
Harold "Mick" Crocker signed a then record one-year deal for an Australian to move south and play for Sydney club
Parramatta. 1954 marked the first season when a Grand Final was scheduled to determine the premiership winner. Prior to that the season victors were either the minor premiers or decided by a final that followed two semi-finals. A Grand Final was only played if the minor-premier was defeated in a semi-final or final and exercised their right to challenge via a Grand Final. Since 1954 a Grand Final has been played every year to determine the premiership winner. 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. Oxford never refereed again and the match remains the only top-level game ever abandoned in rugby league history.
Teams Ladder Records set in 1954 In 1954
South Sydney's
Les Brennan set the standing record for the highest number of tries in a debut season with 29. Newtown winger
Ray Preston's 34 tries remains second only to
Dave Brown's 38 in 1935 in the tally of tries scored in a season. Preston and
Kevin Considine combined for fifty-six tries during the season – easily a record for a pair of club wingers. In the last round on 21 August, Western Suburbs set a record for the highest losing score when they lost to Balmain 32–37. This was to be one of only two cases before the introduction of the 10-metre ruck rule in 1993 that a team scored over thirty points and lost the match. ==Finals==