1964 NSW First Division season

The 1964 NSW First Division season was the eighth season of soccer in New South Wales under the administration of the NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs since its breakaway from the NSW Soccer Football Association in January 1957. The home and away regular season began March and ended in August after 22 rounds. APIA Leichhardt FC finished first on the ladder to become regular season premiers for the first time in its history with the federation.
The finals series was primarily held throughout September with a four-team playoff series. After two previous defeats in grand finals, regular season premiers APIA Leichhardt recorded their first championship with a 7–2 victory over Budapest in the grand final.
The pre-season Ampol Cup was won for a fourth time by Sydney FC Prague.

Clubs

Changes from last season:

Auburn and Gladesville-Ryde merged to form Cumberland United.
Corinthian BESC were promoted from Second Division.

Table and results

Finals series

Grand Final

NSWSF First Division
1964 Premiers

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Statistics and awards

Stars of 1964

Soccer World reporters awarded stars out of six to players throughout the 22 rounds. The player with the highest stars was Trevor Edwards with 4.23. Only 11 players average four points or more. South Coast United and Sydney Croatia both had three players, Prague had three players, whilst Hakoah, APIA, Pan Hellenic, Canterbury and Prague all had one player that averaged four points or more. Below left is the list of all eleven players and below right is the team of the year:

Player	Team	Rating
Trevor Edwards	Hakoah	4.23
Pat Woods	South Coast United	4.21
Alan Hetherington	Croatia	4.09
Pat Hughes	A.P.I.A.	4.09
Noberto Bischoff	Croatia	4.05
Omar Collazo	Croatia	4.05
Brian Smith	Pan Hellenic	4.05
Ron Corry	Canterbury-Marrickville	4.00
Fred Falzon	Prague	4.00
Jim Harris	South Coast United	4.00
Brian Rhodes	South Coast United	4.00

Top scorers

Johnny Watkiss was the season's top goalscorer with 24 goals, recording the lowest tally for a top goalscorer since the inception of the league in 1957. Below is a list of the top ten goalscorers for the season:

Player	Team	Goals
Johnny Watkiss	APIA	24
Joe Galambos	Budapest	20
Doug Logan	Pan Hellenic	17
Graham Barnett	South Coast United	15
Herbert Ninaus	Hakoah	15
Tony Nincevich	Yugal-Ryde	14
Jim Richardson	Cumberland United	14
Brian Tristram	Prague	13
Peter Barnes	Corinthian BESC	11
Vic Fernandez	Budapest	11
B. Kelly	Cumberland United	11
Les Scheinflug	Prague	11

Attendances

Below is a list of attendances by club:

Rank	Club	Attendance
1	APIA	150,000
2	Pan Hellenic	133,000
3	South Coast United	84,000
4	Hakoah	79,500
5	Prague	78,500
6	SSC Yugal	77,000
7	Budapest	66,000
8	Croatia	64,000
9	Cumberland United	54,500
10	Canterbury-Marrickville	40,500
11	Bankstown	38,000
12	Corinthian BESC	33,500

Other competitions

Ampol Cup

The season began with the eighth edition of the floodlight pre-season night series on Friday 31 January 1964, culminating with the double-header third place playoff and Final on Friday, 6 March 1964 in front of 8,400 spectators.