not take up the game, ultimately this proved true. The AFC's withdrawal of funding had a detrimental impact with almost all of the senior competitions folding within a year. The last of them, the Auckland competition, folded in 1912 with clubs unable to field sufficient players, and only the junior competition continuing. When New Zealand failed to provide the AFC details on how its 1912 propaganda funds were spent, no subsequent funds were provided in 1913 causing the junior competitions also to fold. Reported Rugby League "takeover" in Australia and the Effect of World War The impact of rugby league's expansion was also significant in the sport's complete demise. Rugby league in New Zealand grew rapidly from 1908 and by 1910 many senior players had begun to shift to the new code. Since the early introduction of both codes, New Zealand media regularly took greater interest in interstate contests across all codes between New South Wales and Queensland, particularly in comparing the popularity and progress of rugby football. Though New Zealand teams had toured Australia, due to AFC policy, no Australian Rules teams ever visited New Zealand. When the New South Wales rugby league team toured in 1912, the focus on Australian Rugby League generated the perception of a decline in prominence of the Australian game in Australia, There was an awareness in the growing gap between New South Wales and Queensland, and the closing financial gap between the Sydney and Melbourne professional competitions, with league offering better paying opportunities for players. By the outbreak of World War I, the code was in serious trouble with many of the remaining players leaving for active service. The war was not all doom for the code however, the formation of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps had a positive effect. In Auckland, 8 clubs reformed at the start of the war with some promising growth prior to the major campaigns. With the rising popularity of rugby league, the Australasian Football Council ramped up its plans to amalgamate with rugby league in an attempt to stay relevant amid a decline in interest. However this played right into the rugby league's hands. Australian rugby league authorities, pulled out of the plan, and the rugby community in New Zealand used the plan to its own advantage. Erroneous media reports were widely circulated across New Zealand in 1914 declaring the proposed amalgamation to a planned