Halberg head has faith in judging panel

Halberg Trust executive director Dave Currie stands by the judging panel who passed over the highly popular Kiwis as finalists in next month's Halberg Awards.

The decision to exclude the Kiwis in the team of the year category in favour of the All Blacks and the three world-champion rowing crews has league fans irate.

Former New Zealand league coach Graham Lowe labelled it a "travesty of justice" and said the Kiwis were more deserving of a place than the All Blacks, having won the Tri-Nations tournament in Britain after beating the champion Australian team 24-0 in the final.

"I think they have to rethink the system, or the people picking them," Lowe said.

But Mr Currie said he had confidence in the 25-member voting academy and there were no plans to change the awards in any way at this stage.

The academy consists of eight sports journalists and 17 athletes and coaches.

It used to consist entirely of sports journalists but it was changed after a survey revealed athletes wanted a presence on the academy.

"We had a major review a couple of years ago when we went out and asked athletes their opinions on the awards, and we got some positive feedback," Mr Currie said.

"The athletes said they would rather have an academy made up of a greater range of athletes judging them than just media. That was the major change we made as a result of that."

Mr Currie said all 17 athletes on the panel "have performed at the highest level and know what it takes to succeed on the world stage".

"Somebody mentioned that there was no one with a league background there but you could say that about a whole range of sports," Mr Currie said.

"I have real faith that they can analyse. They know the level of competition, they know how strong the sport is on the world stage, how competitive it is. There is a whole range of factors they take into account."

The academy no longer meet to discuss the nominees' merits and instead cast their votes by email.

Voters get a short resume of each nominees' leading performances over the year. Further research is at their discretion.

Mr Currie said the teams category was "the most difficult" to judge and he could understand league fans' frustrations.

"If you are an ardent league supporter, you are going to be disappointed the team is not there.

"[Kiwis' coach] Brian McClennan is there in the coaching the category.

"The players have acknowledged what an outstanding difference he made to the team and he has been recognised for that."