CRONULLA are the Mark Webber of the NRL. They can't finish a race. Not only do they splutter within sight of the finish line, they graciously pull over and allow their opponents to fly past.

Rather than being the pits, Cronulla seem to spend the last quarter of contests in them.

In their past seven matches, they have not scored in the final 20 minutes of each game. It's happened 11 times this season.

In defence, they are similarly dreadful in the last quarter.

In their past 10 matches, they have kept the opposition scoreless only twice. After 18 rounds, they have scored 46 points in the final 20 minutes, while conceding 73.

So profound is their ineptitude after the hour mark, they should be sponsored by 60 Minutes. It is a most unusual record for a Ricky Stuart coached side, lending support to Jack Gibson's explanation for Cronulla's historic failure: "It's something in the woodwork".

By contrast, Manly, their opponents at Shark Park tonight, are formula one's equivalent of Jack Brabham, who was so desperate to reach the checkered flag, he once pushed his car over the line.

The Sea Eagles lead the league in piling on the points in the last quarter.

They have scored 135 points after the hour, adding 10 or more points in the final 20 minutes seven times this season.

In defence, they are miserly, keeping their opponents to a total of 41 in the last quarter.

Ten times this season they have not allowed opponents to score in the final 20 minutes.

The last-quarter aggregates of both teams after 18 rounds reads Sharks minus 27 and Sea Eagles plus 94.

Stuart is aware of his team's scoring collapse, adding a statistic of his own: "We have scored only once in the last 20 minutes of the last 10 games." Asked the reason, he said: "It's something we are trying to find a solution to. We noticed it in our mid-season review. I've been speaking about it at training and creating some drills to combat it."

The usual culprits in late game meltdowns are over-training, players carrying injuries, inexperience, poor rotation, ineffective captaincy and lack of creative players.

Stuart identifies the last of these as his chief problem.

"Having a player such as [fullback] Brett Kearney missing for those games has been a big disadvantage for us," he said. "He is the only player with great second-phase play, a great broken field runner. When we had him, we were scoring some of those unstructured attacking style tries you get at the end of games. He's been a huge loss to us."

True. An offensive game plan only takes a team so far. During the final 20 minutes, players are on their own.

This period challenges the robotic players and opens up the game for those with natural football instincts to exploit a tiring opposition.

But the Sharks are also poor in defence over the final quarter.

How does the absence of the creative Kearney contribute to a porous defence?

Lack of creative players hurts a team defensively because they are not asking any questions of the opposition's tiring defence. The opposition is unchallenged, leaving them fresh to attack.

Interestingly, Stuart's team knows what to do after half-time when the firebrand coach tells them where to attack.

The Sharks have an impressive tally of 108 third-quarter points - more than double their final quarter tally.

Manly coach Des Hasler is less certain than Stuart for his team's great last 20-minute stats. "I can't put my finger on the reason why," he said. "There's something about us where we hang in there. We've learnt to come home. Our conditioners here work hard on being able to sustain a match."

If it is unusual for a Stuart-coached team to collapse, it's not surprising a Hasler team would be fit.

Manly have GPS technology which allows them to monitor fitness and adjust training. The lightweight device, strapped to a player's back, has a number of microchips which position the player in space and time and emits signals, allowing measurement of speed and acceleration.

"It gives us feedback on individual player's physiology," Hasler says. "It tells us how far we need to run at training."

So the GPS, which Cronulla don't have, explains the Sea Eagles' last 20-minute success?

"Conditioning plus desire," Hasler said, before cautioning the writer. "Under the radar, remember. Don't make too much of a point of it."

Yes, Desmond. But points are the point, as both football coaches and formula one drivers know.