HALBERG AWARDS. Thoughts?

2010 Halberg Award: All Whites.

Team of the Year: All Whites.

Coach of the Year: Ricki Herbert.

Sportsman of the Year: Richie McCaw.

Sportswoman of the Year: Valerie Adams.

Emerging Talent Award: Gareth Kean.

Favourite Sporting Moment: Winston Reid's last-minute goal for the All Whites.


Whole lotta football in there!

Great to see the All Whites recognised!!!

Guess they couldn't give everything to rowing on account of the attendence at the World Champs here proving that no one cares about rowing if it's not the Olympics.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Halberg-Awards-panelist-resigns-over-All-Whites-win/tabid/415/articleID/197978/Default.aspx

I am completely biased and think it is awesome that they got the award(s) as a team and individuals.

Yes it is an interesting situation to award a team with such prestige that hasnt actually won anything but I think it is great that the panel of 28 recognise what a feat it is to perform that far "above" expectations on the biggest sporting stage in the world. Not sure if resigning is the right answer if he wants to get his point of view across as a reasonable argument though>


NZ just has to realise that winning the Rugby world cup (5th biggest sporting event in the world) is awesome but 90% of the world doesnt care about rugby and the AB's are the favourites 99% of the time when is the achievement of performing above expectations even within their grasp?? Lets face it apart from Wales, SA and NZ Rugby is a minority sport.

Not that Im trying to makes this Rugby vs Soccer but lets face it its way easier to be Sportsman of the Year in the most successful sporting team in the world over 100yrs than it is to be if your a self funded World Champion in a minority (in NZ) sport like Taekwon-do or Archery or multisport etc.....

sigh - no right answer obv I just like to see hard work reward and recognised especially when it is MY SPORT<<<<<<

LOL @ some guy who only managed to win at the Commonwealth games throwing his toys. Come back when you win an Olympics or world champs, then we'll listen to you!

I think it was deserved of the All Whites and most of the whinging is coming from your typical blinkered rugby supporter that refuse to accept Rugby is a minority sport.

The All Blacks constantly beat up on lesser teams from countries where all the best althletes play sports that people actually care about in the world, and Rugby is played by a few private school boys. They can get the award if they manage to win the world cup this year.

PS. I doubt the Rugby World cup would be the 5th biggest sporting event? There is some massive stuff out there and Rugby on a global scale is fairly insignificant.

Richie sportsman of the year? ARE YOU FUCKEN KIDDING ME?

World Cup Soccer 1st
Olympics 2nd
Commonwealth Games 3rd
Winter Olympics 4th
Rugby World Cup 5th

As ranked in number of competitors, spectators at event, tv viewing, economic impact to host......

The tv viewing thing is a scam when it comes to Rugby World Cup though isn't it?

well......... maybe it should read "value reamed from sponsors + value reemed from networks buying the rights +prospective viewing audience"

and yeah NZ timezone sucks super for a lot of countries which affects actual viewing vs prospective audience pretty heavily.....

and the above doesnt count the multi country or series etc like formula 1, Grand Slam tennis, Golf tours.....

Premier League and NBA etc have got to be up there as well.

all whites did not deserve to win..maybe if there was a 'fair play' award...

If the very best team in NZ is, at best, the 17th best team at something in the world, we should give up playing sports.

but the award isnt for "Best" Team of the Year it is for TEAM of the year,

So by that criteria the All Whites had the other teams crushed in everything except a trophy/medal team spirit, self belief, resilience, work ethic, support of others

Imagine if netherlands get through the Cricket Semi-Finals - everyone would be saying what an amazing team, amazing coach etc etc

heh deadmoney... do you realise how many hours on the water the rowers spend together?

You do realise the point of sports is "the trophy/medal"?

What a joke regarding the All Whites....

Sports isn't about participating it's about trying to win.


We came 22nd! Typical loser NZ Mentality. We played a very negative game of football. We played to draw and had every chance of winning our last game against Paraguay but instead chose not to attack.

We didn't play to ADVANCE in the Competition.

Once Slovakia scored against Italy Herbert and Co. knew we needed to score a goal and that a draw would not suffice. Yet we hung in our half and defended in numbers....

The reason the All Whites totally deserved the team and overall award are the fact they completely mesmerised a whole nation of people, the huge majority of whom care nothing about soccer.

They kept half the country up late, massively exceeded expectations and conducted themselves well... This is something neither the All Blacks, Valerie Adams etc etc have done to remotely comparable levels.

The people who criticise this win seem to be the sort who'd vote against Scott Dixon winning an award (after taking the IRL title) because he was "just driving a car."

All top sportspeople spend millions of hours and effort to be as good as they can be (ask Maestro his lifetime tally of hours in poker) but the rowing isnt classed as a team sport so they probably dont get considered otherwise they may have been in the running.

And I 100% agree the point of sports is to win. - it just happens that we are not discussing the point of sports nor the validity of one sport above another we are discussing which NZ team embodies the "Team of the Year" across a range of criteria and DESERVING is not a criteria because all top teams/athletes who give it 100 can probably be called deserving......

I notice that no-one is really begrudging Ricki Herbert as coach of the year or Winston Reids goal as sporting moment of the year so why is team of the year such a much bigger deal?

How is celebrating an achievement never thought possible a loser mentality? We played to book the very best result probable/possible no loses and advance football in NZ and NZ on the world football stage. Every singe expert analysis of what Ricki and the AW's did at the world cup is a glowing summation of an incredible gameplan, assessment of the situation and adaptation.

Ricki was voted in the top 10 football coaches in the world as a result of his work with the Phoenix and AW's side last year.

Yes it would be awesome to see the AW's play a more attacking football but if they decided to stick to their guns much like a test team batting out a draw or kicking a penalty for a draw 5mins from time against the Aussies in the Bledisloe then I guess thats a decision they made.

This from the guy who constantly bemoans the amount of value placed on the world cup.

The key word here people is "perspective."

Yeah but no gives a flying fuck about rowing outside of the Olympics, the World Champs were a complete and utter failure because no one cared so it lost millions of dollars. Might as well give the award to the lumberjack team or sheep sheerers who win every year.

My only gripe is that Nelsen lost to Ritchie McCaw. WTF?

The All Whites deserved it, but only because "winning" wasn't in the criteria.

If it was about winning then it would blatantly go to the All Blacks who had one of the best years ever!

Wow... talk about bitter! Way to undermine pretty much the only globally respected sporting team to come out of this tiny country...

Richie to be fair had a better year than Nelsen. He did after all win the IRB Player of the Year award for the 3rd time, led his team to record wins, played amazingly well etc.

Faye smythe looked mighty fine.


And a tad inebriated.

The other thing that you have to remeber is the Nelsen plays in an unspectacular position so your average person wouldn't recognise the work he was doing. The average person I was speaking to were adamant that Paston was the player most responsible because all they saw were his saves and couldn't recognise all the grunt work and organisational work that Nelsen was doing. Without Nelsen last ditch blocks, defensive organisation, and succession of clearances we would've conceded a lot more but even some football fans failed to see this. Whereas your average person here is much more clued up on rugby and can spot McCaw claiming 1000 turnovers per game, breaking and making tackles, and leading by example.

That's not a complaint btw just an observaton, as I have no problems with McCaw winning as he was colossal last year.