Group 10 Referees Association president Nick Lander said on the eve of the annual City-Country Origin match to be played in Wagga Wagga on Sunday that numbers in his association had plummeted from 96 members last season to almost 60.

"In my senior ranks, that's referees who can do [under] 18s to first grade, I have 18 referees [for 17 games]," he said. "It's a massive battle every week to field referees to control all games.

"If I have one referee sidelined through injury it does my head in. We have a 62-year-old refereeing here and there's days where he'll run three games on the one day. He might do the line for the 18s, centre for reserve grade and the line for first grade."

Lander said Group 10's situation was typical of the bush but said Western Division was in a healthier position than most other districts.

However, with an average age of 34 in his pool of referees, Lander said it's obvious younger people found it unappealing to drive up to 200 kilometres to referee a game while he added there's no great financial incentive.

Last year Lander said he made less than $4000 for refereeing or running the line for 18 matches and the five-week finals series.

"I do it because I love refereeing, I love rugby league," he said. "I could make that much money in three weekends in my business."

Former Canterbury great Peter Mortimer, who lives in Orange, pinpointed refereeing as bush football's biggest issue and he urged the NRL to act.

"There must be more focus placed on referees than players at the moment," Mortimer said. "You have to offer incentives for people to become refs and that moves into the area of crowd and player behaviour.

"There needs to be an intensive campaign to recruit referees and improve their status. Back them up with security and confidence. Country-City week should be a week for the refs, too.

"It's great they take players to the bush for coaching clinics but they should have a three-day clinic headed by the NRL's referees for the refs in the bush."

Former Cronulla centre Ryan McGoldrick, who joined Group 20's  Darlington Point-Coleambally after winding up his career in the English Super League, was "stunned" by the referee situation.

"It's miles from where I thought it'd be," he said. "While I was overseas I watched the NRL go from strength to strength but there's a lot that needs to be sorted out in the bush.

"We had a 60-year-old referee the other day and the game was that slow; bloody terrible. I can understand the refereeing won't be up to the NRL's standard. I can cop that, but they need help."

Lander appealed for NRL chief executive David Smith to take action.

"It'd be great if he asked what we needed but I don't think they're interested," he said. "The game is focused on Sydney and the NRL but  without the country we don't have an NRL.

"There is a pool of money given to the Country Rugby League and they disperse it to the Country Rugby League [Referee's] Association, but the majority of that is used to develop our academy style referees. It doesn't filter out, for instance, to my area to help me run courses.

"The [NRL] made  plenty of money from the broadcast deal but none of it has filtered out to any of the referees associations to help their members improve."