Former Country coach Craig Bellamy has questioned whether Coffs Harbour is the right venue for the annual City-Country rugby league match after experiencing a similar embarrassing turnout when he oversaw a match there.

The match at BCU Stadium last Sunday drew less than 5000 fans with ticket pricing and a lack of star power blamed.

It was the lowest turnout for the match since 1987 and the first time in three years the NRL had not sold out a representative fixture.

The Melbourne mentor was Country coach for three years from 2005-’07 with the last of those matches played at Coffs Harbour and he said it could be that the northern NSW coastal town wasn’t the best choice.

“At that time (in 2007), it was a bit of an experiment and they played it on a Thursday night and the crowd was really poor,” he said.

“Taking that sort of game to a country area, you should get a good crowd.

“With the disappointment of the crowd on Sunday, I don’t know whether that area will turn up to watch that game so perhaps it’s not the right place to be playing it.”

Despite its original status as a genuine NSW State of Origin trial, there were a number of withdrawals from both teams with players citing injury.

Bellamy said players also needed to treat the match with more respect and was disappointed by the withdrawals.

“Being a proud Country person, I think it’s really important to have that in our calendar but it’s got to be back to being treated seriously by clubs and players.”

Coffs Harbour mayor Denise Knights said the match lost some of its lustre because of the withdrawals.

“If they want serious crowds, they’ve got to bring their best players,” she said.