The home-and-home season was played over twenty matches, before the top four clubs contested a finals series under the
Page–McIntyre system to determine the premiers for the season.
The leading goalkicker for the season was
Peter Schofield (
Moorabbin), who kicked 95 goals for the home-and-home season and 96 goals overall. Schofield sealed the title in Moorabbin's final home-and-home match for the season against
Sandringham, in which he kicked 22 goals, including all sixteen of Moorabbin's second-half goals.[2][6]
Moorabbin won the seconds premiership. Moorabbin 11.10 (76) defeated
Williamstown 10.8 (68) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain raiser to the firsts Grand Final on 2 October.[5]
Notable events
Former
Brunswick player and delegate
Alec Gillon became president of the Association at the
annual general meeting in February 1954, challenging and defeating Lewis Page, who had served as president since 1951.[8] Gillon went on to become the longest serving president of the Association, serving until 1981.[9]
Prior to the season, two soccer clubs attempted to gain partial occupancy of Association grounds. The
Jugoslav United Soccer Team tendered an offer of £800 to the
City of Prahran for the use of
Toorak Park on alternate weekends during the season, a move which would have left the
Prahran Football Club – which paid only £25 in rent for the year – without a venue for its seconds team to use; but the council rejected J.U.S.T's offer, citing its desire to remain loyal to Prahran as the reason.[10] However, the Brighton Soccer Club was successful in securing a lease for alternate weekends at
Elsternwick Park, sharing the venue with
Brighton; in Brighton's case, the club's seconds already played at a different venue – Brighton Beach Oval – and it was Brighton's existing co-tenant, the Elsternwick Football Club from the
Victorian Amateur Football Association, which was evicted as a result.[11] It was the first time an Association club had been forced to share its ground with a club from a rival code, and it re-established grounds control as a major issue within the Association – ultimately escalating to the events of
1959, when the Association suspended Prahran after the council leased Toorak Park to the Victorian Rugby Union on alternate weekends.[12]
Despite having played as an amateur team since mid-1953 due to financial hardships,
Northcote managed to reach the final four.[13][14]