. let’s just stick to sport

opportunities to talk sport were missed. But the good news is that the open-minded Hall has taken note of the suggestion and so we could see a change for next year’s Halbergs. He also hopes to take the event around New Zealand in future years, although it will stay in Auckland in 2013 because it is the 50th anniversary.

So let’s hope we also hear far more from the sports people themselves because – surprise, surprise – they were the stars of the show at this year’s awards. Murray Halberg, David Kirk, John Hart, Graham Henry, Lynn Cameron, Fred Allen and Valerie Adams were all hit acts.

Kirk made a nice point about the All Blacks being the best team in the world because of the final 20 minutes of the final, not despite them. Adams elegantly thanked her coach in French. Henry, Halberg and Cameron had far better one-liners than those attempted by the comedians.

The awards might also be helped if certain New Zealand governing bodies pulled their finger out. It was a disgrace that the world’s No 1 amateur golfer, the 14-year-old Lydia Ko, did not make what turned out to be an allmale shortlist for the emergingtalent award.

Hall says Ko was not nominated by New Zealand Golf and so was not eligible. Oh dear.

There may also be room for a couple of extra awards. Maybe an unsung hero could celebrate all the wonderful volunteers. Communities could nominate a suitable candidate. It seems a good fit with the ethos of the Halbergs.

Calling the Halberg awards ‘‘one of the world’s best’’ was not hyperbole, but recognition of the wonderful work that the trust does with disabled and abled-bodied athletes. The awards night is the trust’s biggest fund raiser of the year. That is why it is in all our interests to make it as good as possible.