- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Rewind the tape back to Round 2, where Brett Stewart’s jig resembling a hipster feeding chooks accompanied his double against Melbourne at Brookvale Oval.
With the benefit of hindsight, the unusual dance quite rightly grabbed more headlines than the achievement it claimed to celebrate.
Snake’s first that evening reportedly drew him level with Steve ‘Beaver’ Menzies’ record of 78 Brooky touchdowns, while outright try-scoring leadership at the iconic venue complemented his second.
If only a backflip rounded out the wacky hand-flicking rendition, it would have all made sense. It seems the choreographed sequence and roar from the hill was a tad premature.
Nestled in Menzies’ shorts are another 10 tries scored at the Pittwater Road venue in Northern Eagles colours from 2000 to 2002.
Many believe Beaver’s 180 career tries, including the 29 scored for the failed joint venture, should double as the Manly club record and insist Snake is well short, despite recently passing Menzies’ mark of 151 compiled under the Manly-Warringah banner.
But there can be no such argument for venue based records where an individual’s tally reflects mastery of specific ground attributes, irrespective of team name.
And if anyone’s entitled to slam their headgear in disgust, it’s Steve ‘Beaver’ Menzies.
His 88 four-pointers compiled for Manly and the merged outfit are not only the most at Brookvale Oval, but as far I can determine, the most by an individual at any one venue in premiership history.
After Stewart’s 85, next on the list is Andrew Ettingshausen’s 80 at Shark Park.
Other notables include Anthony Minichiello’s 77 at the Sydney Football Stadium and Matty Bowen’s 71 in Townsville.
Ken Irvine grounded the pigskin 71 times at North Sydney Oval and Billy Slater has crossed for 100 tries in Melbourne, albeit spread across three separate venues (55 at Olympic Park, 34 at AAMI and 11 at Docklands).
The bar would be higher if seasons early last century were comparable in length to modern times.
Well before greyhounds chased the elusive bunny at Sydney’s Wentworth Park, Glebe and Australian forward Frank Burge proved equally evasive scoring 71 tries in only 56 matches over nine prosperous seasons.
But for all of that, no one is better placed than Beaver himself to right the statistical wrongs and formalise his one-ground scoring prowess.
Under the guidance of FOX teammates Fletch and Hindy, Menzies is well-positioned to host a segment called ‘The Fortress: Beagle Beaver’s missing handful’, starting with his very first try at Brookvale Oval for the Northern Eagles – a match winning flop atop a Matt Orford grubber.
As for Brett Stewart, word will spread outlining the additional work required to be undisputed Fortress king. And another cryptic post try performance like the whip-wielding gallop after career try 100 will be expected to headline the take-two celebrations.
And the belated final act is surely imminent.
With Snake back to his career striking best having already bagged four doubles at home this season, expect the remaining four tries to be banked by season’s end.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.