OK, I am biased, I am a football nut. I think they deserved to win the Halberg Award and given that the 28 person panel voted accordingly, there was obviously enough support from the people who mattered.
The panel consist of 10 media types and 18 sports people from a wide range of sports. Interestingly, none of them are from Football.
Possibly sentiment carried the day, Dick Taylor is due to resign as he didn\’t \”agree with the end result.\”
As the President of the Canterbury Rugby Supporters Club, you could guess that football is not his favourite sport, but his beef seems mainly that he thinks you must win something to be eligible.
\”Really, they (All Whites) didn\’t win anything. Part of the criteria for the Halbergs is about people winning or high achieving.\”
He mentions that bit at the end \”or high achieving\” as a bit of a throw away, but it does change the criteria significantly.
Is high achieving significantly surpassing everything people expect of you?
If so then the All Whites were a shoe in for the award.
People expect the All Blacks to win, The Kiwis and Silver Ferns are one of only 2 or 3 contenders for every trophy. This is a massive achievement in the world of football.
Giving the award to a \”non winner\” has precendent:
Here is a list of recent winners:
- 1990 Halberg Award Winner – Peter Blake
- 1991 Halberg Award Winner – Philippa Baker
- 1992 Halberg Award Winner – Annelise Coberger
- 1993 Halberg Award Winner – New Zealand Men’s Amateur Golf Team
- 1994 Halberg Award Winner – Philippa Baker & Brenda Lawson
- 1995 Halberg Award Winner – America’s Cup Team
- 1996 Halberg Award Winner – Danyon Loader – (1990s Decade Champion)
- 1997 Halberg Award Winner – Beatrice Faumuinã
- 1998 Halberg Award Winner – Rob Waddell
- 1999 Halberg Award Winner – Rob Waddell
- 2000 Halberg Award Winner – Rob Waddell
- 2001 Halberg Award Winners – Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell
- 2002 Halberg Award Winners – New Zealand Men\’s Basketball Team
- 2003 Halberg Award Winners – SILVER FERNS (netball)
- 2004 Halberg Award Winner – SARAH ULMER (cycling)
- 2005 Halberg Award Winner – MICHAEL CAMPBELL (golf)
- 2006 HALBERG AWARD WINNER: MAHE DRYSDALE (ROWING).
- 2007 HALBERG AWARD WINNER: VALERIE VILI (ATHLETICS).
- 2008 HALBERG AWARD WINNER: VALERIE VILI (ATHLETICS).
- 2009 HALBERG AWARD WINNER: VALERIE VILI (ATHLETICS).
Full Details can be found here and here
The 2004 triumph of the Tall Blacks is a similar award of the Halbergs to a non winner, their amazing 4th in the world championships is arguably an ever bigger non winning achievement.
It was also a great result for Winston Reid\’s equalising goal as the Sporting Moment award. I was awake, ready to pack the kids off to bed after a competent, but anticpated loss.
But THAT goal changed everything. The kids were buzzing. They didnt want to miss the other games and the whole World Cup took on another dimension from that point onwards.
Enjoy these…
God on you Boys, well done!
