[4] With the AFC's preference for the Australian code to be played only in Australia, Hickey believed in promoting Universal Football to nations outside Australia in preference to Australian Football particularly North America, England, the United States and had particularly strong support from the AFC's New Zealand and New South Wales delegates who faced increasing competition from the rugby codes.
[7] Sportswriters noted that there was a mutual financial benefit to the AFC and the NSWRL, which was considered to be the chief motivation for progressing towards amalgamation: the NSWRL had only one meaningful interstate rival (Queensland), and its tours to England generally lost money, so having more interstate rivals would generate additional interest and gate takings;[8] the AFC also had the opportunity to gain additional interstate and international rivals;[7] the AFC would gain the benefit of the strong financial position of the NSWRL; and amalgamation would put an end to the outflow of money which each body had expended attempting unsuccessfully to promote its code in the other's territory.
[7][8] Many sportswriters, among them respected Australian rules football sportswriters Jack Worrall and Reginald Wilmot, criticised the administrative bodies for putting their financial considerations ahead of the quality of the respective games, and predicted that fans across Australia would react negatively to changes to their favoured codes.
[10] The initial set of changes slated in November 1914 for the 1915 season were: Australian rules football would add the crossbar to its goalposts over which goals were to be kicked, would disallow forward handpasses or knock-ons, and adopt the stronger tackling rules; and rugby league would replace the scrum with the ball-up and throw-in, and require the try-scorer to take his own conversion kicks.
[22][23][24] The concept was revisited briefly in 1933, in large part through the enthusiasm of long-serving secretaries Harold R. Miller (of the NSWRL) and Con Hickey (of the renamed Australian National Football Council), both of whom had been involved in 1914.
Key differences or clarifications were: the game was to be played 14-a-side; the off-side rules of rugby were resolved formally to apply within 35 yards of the goals but not elsewhere on the field; knocking-on was permitted from a ball-up but not in general play; and scoring was adjusted such that a try was worth three points and all goals worth two, consistent with rugby league scoring at the time.
The game was played at reduced 12-a-side numbers[26] by members of the visiting Queensland Australian rules football team some New South Wales rugby league players.
The regional division between the preeminence of rugby league in the north and east Australia and Australian rules football in the rest of the country, sometimes characterised in the context of the Barassi Line, persists to the modern day.