to New South Wales (50%) and Queensland (30%). By 1909, the game was rapidly growing had become established in Auckland, Waihi, Poverty Bay, Canterbury, Otago, Taihape and Utiki and moves were being made to establish a league in the Southland at Invercargill. 1910s: Decline and AFC's Exclusion campaign Many of the leagues went into rapid decline around the end of the decade. This was partly due to the departure of a number of the Australian players back home, but also due to rising conflict with rugby authorities. Leagues were beginning to encounter interference from rugby, the Wellington League of Australian Football for example was denied access to its primary venue the Basin Reserve from 1908 and lack of suitable venues led to it folding and leagues around the country faced similar challenges. However the biggest challenge came from within the game itself. Since the inception of the AFC Victoria (VFL) and South Australia (SAFL) had been pushing for support for the game overseas to be wound up. Both leagues were invested in protecting their primacy and advocated for the redirection of funds proposed for other nations to New South Wales and Queensland in an effort to instead nationalise the game in Australia. With only one voting member, New Zealand was powerless to defend its position. New Zealand's AFC delegate, E. L. McKeon, in 1908 with the support of AFC president Con Hickey (Victoria), had begun promoting the idea of universal football (amalgamation with rugby league) as the solution to help stave off increased competition to rugby. South Australia's delegate R. F. C Sullivan, strongly in support of the pure Australian Football again moved to exclude New Zealand from the council in 1910 and while the motion was defeated the chair Hickey (Victoria) passed a motion that would withdraw all funding to senior competition, a move which the New Zealand delegate called a "death warrant for the sport" in the country. In 1911, the Council decided to reduce New Zealand's funding to £50 (compared to £225 for New South Wales and for £125 for Queensland) and only on the condition that all of it be spent on juniors (no such restrictions were placed on the Australian member states). The AFC was adamant that its funds be used only to introduce the code into New Zealand schools. New Zealand's delegate had strongly argued that without a viable senior competition schools would simply