National Ruby League officials are concerned about crowd numbers for this weekend's two playoff matches which look like plummeting compared with recent years.
About 23,000 tickets have been sold to each match which the league has been forced to host at smaller venues, the Sydney Football Stadium and AAMI Park.
In the last two years, Sydney's Olympic stadium hosted more than 70,000 fans in the second to last week of the season.
The concerning figures come at a time when many in the game are disappointed at some clubs' reluctance to allow media opportunities to promote the series.
The traditional reluctance of Manly fans to cross the Harbour Bridge is being tackled with a fleet of no fewer than 18 buses to ferry fans free of charge to tonights preliminary final against Brisbane.
The Warriors play the Melbourne Storm tomorrow night, overlapping with the All Blacks-France World Cup match on television.
