Downhill charge: Inside the Brookvale quirk driving Sea Eagles' finals charge
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Reuben Garrick says it feels like running downhill. Jake Trbojevic jokes they’re running towards McDonalds, while Cliff Lyons says the Sea Eagles are trying to push their opponents back over the Spit Bridge.
All up, it’s one of the more unusual statistical quirks of recent NRL history.
Throughout the past decade, nearly 60% of Manly’s points at 4 Pines Park have been scored by the team running south.
For context, most grounds across the league hover around a 51-49 split for points scored in each direction.
Haumole Olakau'atu Try
The stat has caught the attention of generations of Manly players and befuddled some of the game’s smartest minds.
No matter the reason, the Sea Eagles will be looking to take advantage when they host the Sharks at 4 Pines Park on Sunday afternoon.
“We always love running that direction,” Garrick said. “We’re running downhill when we’re going south. It’s changed a little bit when they redid the field but we feel like we’re going downhill so we always love attacking that end.”
Match: Sea Eagles v Sharks
Round 21 -
home Team
Sea Eagles
9th Position
away Team
Sharks
4th Position
Venue: 4 Pines Park, Sydney
Match broadcasters:
- WatchNRL
Rugby league historian David Middleton, author of the official Annual of the NRL, has been tracking the stat for the past decade and confirmed 4 Pines Park is an outlier across the league.
Over the last 10 years at 4 Pines Park, Manly have scored 1293 points running south and 989 points running north.
Of the 380 points scored by all sides at the ground this season, 223 have been scored by the team running south, making a 59-41% split.
Across all other venues this season there have been 3,080 points scored to the north and 3,186 to the south, for just a 51-49% split.
The quirk dates back a decade, with Manly scoring more points running south in eight of the last 10 years. The only outliers are 2020, in which just seven games were played at the ground, and 2025.
Sea Eagles v Cowboys - Round 19, 2026
The situation came to light during the Sea Eagles last game at 4 Pines Park, a golden point loss to the Cowboys in which 26 of 37 points were scored by the side running south as North Queensland pulled off an epic comeback.
Trbojevic joked the team scores more points running south because that’s where the local McDonald’s sits, while Lyons pointed to a more well-known local landmark.
“We wanted to push the other side back over the Spit Bridge,” Lyons told NRL.com.
The club legend will be on hand on Sunday afternoon as the Sea Eagles celebrate Old Boys Day for their match against Cronulla.
The event will mark the club’s 80th season and the 30th anniversary of their 1996 premiership, in which Lyons starred as five-eighth alongside halfback Geoff Toovey.
Match Highlights: Sea Eagles v Dragons
A win on Sunday will mark both Manly’s 500th victory at Brookvale and the club’s 1000th win in the top flight.
Manly have fallen to ninth on the ladder after dropping their past three games and need to get their season back on track to keep their hopes of a finals finish alive.
To do so, they will look to pile on the points running south, with Lyons’ comments highlighting just how far back the story goes.
“Our goal was to get them as far away from Brookie as we can,” Lyons said. “We spoke about it in our huddles, push them back over the bride and drive them backwards.
“It was a player-led thing and was always in the back of our minds.”
Garrick first noticed the phenomenon when he arrived at the club in 2019, however a recent redevelopment has slightly altered the way the field plays.
Reuben Garrick Try
The Bob Fulton Stand at the northern end of the ground was opened at the start of 2022 and Garrick said the change was immediately noticeable.
“We could feel it more back in the day before the redevelopment,” Garrick said. “The ground used to be a lot boggier so running downhill felt good. Now it’s a lot faster and you don’t feel it as much.
“It feels like running downhill but it’s in your mind too.”
As Middleton’s statistics highlight, the phenomenon isn’t limited to the home team, with away teams also benefiting from the psychological advantage of running downhill.
Not all players, however, have noticed the situation. Cronulla halfback Nicho Hynes was a Manly junior and spent plenty of time running around 4 Pines Park growing up.
The trend of points running south was not something he was aware of, but the playmaker is eager to take advantage of it this weekend.
“I played there as a junior but I wasn’t aware of it,” Hynes said. “I don’t really think about stats like that but maybe we should run south in the first half and score some early points.”
