Just days after missing out on hosting a game between the Manly Sea Eagles and Canberra Raiders on April 4, councillors discussed writing to Manly and the NRL to express their disappointment at Albury being chosen instead.

It is understood the Albury bid was in excess of $200,000 with money provided by private backers, while Dubbo had tabled an offer of a lump sum from Group 11 to cover accommodation and travel costs and a share of gate takings.

According to sources at Bathurst, Bathurst Regional Council are paying in excess of $250,000 a year for their five-year deal with the Penrith Panthers, which delivers one game a year to Carrington Park.

Manly chief executive officer Joe Kelly contacted Mayor Mathew Dickerson on Friday to tell him the bad news.

"Unfortunately it came down to the simple fact of dollars. We ended up with regions bidding with each other," Cr Dickerson told councillors at Monday night's monthly meeting.

"Joe Kelly spoke to me on Friday, before the announcement was made on Saturday and said unfortunately Dubbo had missed out. He said he had a guarantee of dollars from Albury, here there was a share of gate takings with Group 11, which still would have been a significant amount of dollars but he wasn't prepared to take that risk, he wanted to take the certain money."

Cr Walkom said the NRL would be making a big mistake if it did not support rugby league in one of its heartlands and key junior rugby league regions.

"They [NRL] have to put some skin in the game. They have said over and over again this is the heartland of junior rugby league and country rugby league in NSW," Cr Walkom said.

"They have acknowledged they have to support the game in country areas and it's about time they put it into action and spoke to Manly in relation to that game coming here.

"We know that the facility we have here at Apex Oval is bar none the best in regional NSW, if not regional Australia. We know that and they acknowledged that.

Despite his desire to see an NRL game brought to Dubbo, Cr Walkom said he didn't want council to underwrite one.

"I don't support or wouldn't support this council supporting any one single event to the tune that would have been required," he said.

It is a sentiment echoed by the mayor.

"People come up to me and ask why we aren't getting these events but if you explain to them it would cost a significant amount of ratepayers money to make it happen, generally their reaction is that they don't want their rates being spent on that.

"The NRL has to support a club in underwriting the process of coming to regional areas, rather than asking a council to stump up several hundred thousand dollars to put a game on. I don't think it's fair to ratepayers.

"I think the model we had, where council were supporting Group 11 works much better. Council doesn't spend a lot of money, the city reaps the benefit and Group 11 and the NRL club split the gate takings."

Group 11 president Ross McDermott said Group 11 are in contact with Manly to try and secure their July 31 clash against the Brisbane Broncos. He said they had worked well with council and said hosting a match would have benefits for Dubbo and the game in the region.

"When we had a trial between Canterbury and the Canberra Raiders, the money we made from the game helped to pay player registrations for almost two years. It spread the money around to eight clubs across the region," Mr McDermott said.

Mr McDermott said he hopes to know in the next three weeks if Dubbo has been successful in securing the Manly-Broncos game.