Halberg snub for ABs
The All Blacks have been snubbed from next month’s Halberg Awards with not a single player, coach or the team among the finalists revealed yesterday.
While the men’s national rugby side as well as coach Steve Hansen were overlooked when the nominations were announced last month, there were still three players in the mix for the Sportsman of the Year prize.
However, lock Brodie Retallick, hooker Codie Taylor and Super Rugby player of the year Richie Mo’unga all missed the shortlist as the judges opted for world champion shot putter Tom Walsh, Winter Olympic bronze medallist freeskier Nico Porteous, IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Supercars winner Scott McLaughlin.
It’s the first time since 2007 that the All Blacks have been shut out of the Halberg Awards. They were not the only mainstream team to miss out, with the Black Caps also failing to receive a single finalist after in-form batsman Ross Taylor was left out.
Rugby was still represented by the national men’s and women’s sevens sides in the Team of the Year award after both won their respective World Cups and gold medals at the Commonwealth Games.
Black Ferns sevens coach Allan Bunting and All Black sevens counterpart Clark Laidlaw were also nominated for Coach of the Year alongside Ireland rugby’s Kiwi mentor Joe Schmidt. 2017 winner Gordon Walker is again up for the prize for his work with kayak queen Lisa Carrington, while NZ Football under-17 women’s football team coach Leon Birnie rounds out the list.
Carrington, the 2016 Supreme Halberg winner, is in the running for her third straight Sportswoman of the Year award after claiming a gold and three silver medals at the Canoe Sprint World Championships. There was no room for Black Ferns sensation Kendra Cocksedge despite becoming the first woman to be crowned New Zealand Rugby’s player of the year last month.
Instead, Carrington was joined by squash player Joelle King, who won the Hong Kong Open plus two gold and a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, as well as Jonelle Price, who became the first New Zealand woman to win the Badminton Horse Trials followed by the Luhmuhlen event.
Teen snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott also made the cut for claiming bronze at the Winter Olympics.
The NZ under-17 women’s football side are also flying the flag for young sports stars following their third-place finish at the World Cup. They are up against the NZ women’s kayaking team and Black Sticks women’s hockey team in the Team category, as well as the two sevens sides.
Sophie Pascoe is again shortlisted for the Para Athlete/ Team of the Year following a medal haul of five gold and two silver across the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships and Commonwealth Games in 2018.
The 2017 winner is joined by two Para alpine skiers – Adam Hall, who won gold and bronze at the Paralympic Winter Games, and Corey Peters, who claimed bronze – and Para canoe racer Scott Martlew after he earned a silver medal at the Canoe Sprint World Championships.
The winners will be announced in Auckland on February 21.