Halbergs gift just keeps on giving
The conspiracy theorists will be in their element on Thursday night.
God bless the Halberg awards. Just when the only thing left for sports fans to moan about was the Wellington sevens, the gift that keeps on giving us controversies every year is back on Thursday.
The Halbergs rarely let you down. I’ve been at an award ceremony when an Olympic gold medal winner stormed out because someone else’s coach won the coaching category. That’s how seriously some of the people up for the awards take them.
Hand up confession. I’m one who couldn’t really give a big fat rat’s about whether sportspeople’s egos are bruised by a lack of Halberg success. The only important thing, surely, is that enough of the money raised gets to kids battling with disabilities to help them play sport.
The reality is that judging a swimmer versus a basketball team versus a pole vaulter is, in any rational world, an impossible task.
But the real fun of the Halbergs is how seriously some people take the judging.
I’ve had a conspiracy theorist insist that because Sir Murray Halberg, who, by the way, has never played a part in the judging, was an Olympic champion, Olympians were unfairly favoured at the awards, while motor sport never get a fair go.
And, confession time, I’ve pointed out myself (although it’s never a crackpot conspiracy theory when it’s your own idea) that individual rugby players, in particular, get a raw deal.
Given that controversy is a major element in keeping the awards in the public eye, and on television, let me stoke the fires.
For a start, the facts about motorsport and rugby do tend to support my petrolhead friend, and me. The last time anyone from motorsport won the overall title was in 1979.
The last time anyone from motorsport won the overall title was in 1979, when world speedway champion, Ivan Mauger, took out his second Halberg, after winning in 1977.
Wilson Whineray, in 1965, was the last All Black to win the overall award. To be fair, when the All Blacks win the world cup, then as a team they also win the Halbergs.
Olympians? Since 1952, just once in Olympic years has the award gone to anybody other than someone from the Games. The only exception was in 1980 when Richard Hadlee won, although that year New Zealand largely boycotted the Games in Moscow, and it would have been truly weird to give awards to kayakers who finished eighth in their finals.
The current judging panel of 26? Twelve are journalists. Just one specialises in rugby coverage, not one on motorsport. Fourteen panelists are athletes and/or sports administrators. Of the 14 athletes eight are from Olympic sports, one, double Formula One world motorcycle champion, Graeme Crosby, from motorsport, and one, former Black Ferns captain, Dr Farah Palmer, from rugby.
Bagging the judges, who vote secretly and individually, really is like shooting fish in a barrel. Under the terms of their agreement with the Halbergs they are expected to ‘‘not disclose how (they) themselves, or any other member voted.’’ Likely areas to target this year? Natalie Rooney, a shooter from Timaru won not only a silver medal in Rio, but the World Cup trap final in Rome in October. Stuff colleague Tony Smith wrote that Rooney missing the short list was ‘‘unfathomable.’’
The upside is that High Performance Sport New Zealand has bumped up Rooney’s grant from $20,000 last year to $125,000 a year for each of the next two years.
Rugby fanatics might wonder how Beauden Barrett, judged the international rugby player of the year, couldn’t even crack a place as a sportsman of the year finalist.
No issue with Mahe Drysdale and Joseph Parker being finalists, but surely being named the best rugby player in the world by international judges should get you up there with Olympic bronze medal winners, Nick Willis and Tom Walsh?
While we’re getting one eyed about rugby, does an Olympic silver medal as a team in yachting and cycling trump setting a world record for consecutive test rugby victories?
And one for the future. What’ll happen if Hayden Paddon ever wins a world rally championship?