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 APIA Lambert Park, Leichhardt Maroon 1st Auburn Mona Park, Auburn Green and Gold 1st Bankstown Bankstown Oval, Bankstown Green and Gold 1st Canterbury Arlington Oval, Dulwich Hill Blue and Gold 1st Concord Concord Oval, Concord Black 1st Eastern Suburbs ? ? 1st Gladesville-Ryde Gladesville Sports Ground Amber and Black 1st Hakoah Sydney Athletics Field, Moore Park Sky Blue and White 1st Lane Cove Chatswood Oval, Chatswood Blue and Gold 1st Prague Sydney Athletics Field, Moore Park Sky Blue 1st Sydney Austral Sydney Cricket Ground No. 2 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.
Preliminary Rounds Team 1 Score Team 2 Sydney Austral 2–1 Auburn Hakoah 3–1 APIA Lane Cove 2–1 Bankstown Sydney Austral 3–0 Prague
Finals
Federation Premiership
Table and results
Finals
Semi-finals
Final
Grand final
Fixtures and results
Federation Cup This was the first year contesting the Federation Cup
Source: Wayback Machine SoccerAust
References General
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