Saturday Night especially 5:30pm is a horrible time for a lot of people myself included---just too busy but i also hate night games in general the quality is generally not there.
I would have thought 13,500-14,300 so it was a little low but if you factor in the following it really was a no brainer that the crowd would not be up as much as expected.
1)Late season early Saturday night games for teams that are inconsistent will not draw as much as early season games in the same time slot with a small roll of good performances.
2)Big Union game on tv has a major bearing on Manly crowds with the high interest of Union in the local area plus the highest uptake of cable tv in Australia. On cold nights unless Manly are killing most teams supporters will stay at home---the more intellectual your supporter base the less fanatical you are to go and watch a game if conditions are not to your liking especially when the facilities are not up to par.
3)Melbourne have nothing to play for--if both teams were top 4 different story but one team struggling to stay in the eight and Melbourne inconsistent it really is not as big a game as its been advertised---yes the recent history of both clubs should help a little but only if both teams have something to play for and are high up in the eight.
4)Melbourne only has a small following in NSW and basically zero with nothing to play for this year.
Its really simple Manly is a Sunday afternoon crowd full stop for most people--- i know 80% of the games i attend are Sunday games and when Manly are doing exceptionally well then Night games will hold up well also.