1958's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership

New South Wales Rugby League premiership

The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League from 1908 until 1994, the premiership was the state's and later the country's elite rugby league competition...

 was the fifty-first season of the rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 competition based in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. Ten teams from across the city competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final between St. George and Western Suburbs.
Having been wooden spooners

Wooden spoon (award)

A wooden spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events...

 in NSWRFL season 1955, Wests

Western Suburbs Magpies

The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...

 embarked on a massive spending spree to recruit internationals Harry Wells

Harry Wells (rugby league)

Harry James Wells is an Australian former representative rugby league footballer of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. A centre whose club career was played along the New South Wales coast as well as in Sydney with the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Western Suburbs Magpies, he has since been named among the...

, Kel O'Shea

Kel O'Shea

Kel O'Shea is an Australian former representative rugby league footballer, a second-rower from Queensland whose club career was played with the Western Suburbs Magpies in Sydney...

, Arthur Summons

Arthur Summons

Arthur Summons is a former Australian representative rugby union and rugby league player, a dual-code rugby international fly-half or five-eighth...

, Dick Poole

Dick Poole

Herbert Richard Poole is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a centre for the Australian national team...

, Darcy Henry and Ian Moir

Ian Moir

Ian Moir was an Australian rugby league player, a champion wing three-quarter of the 1950s for the South Sydney Rabbitohs. He made eight Test appearances for the Australian national representative side and represented in four World Cup matches in two World Cups and in 14 Kangaroo tour...

 over a five-year period.