Dylan Cleaver: I feel sorry for Halberg judges

Brendon McCullum on his way to 302 against India. Photo / Mark Mitchell

I once wrote a really angry column when a football team that didn't win a game won the Halberg supreme award. It wasn't my finest piece of work and it denigrated people who didn't deserve it, but it was an accurate summation of how I felt at the time.

2011 - Dylan Cleaver: All Whites should not have won Halberg prize

I've been asked to go back to that well in the wake of news that the hands-down, not-even-close-for-second, should-be winner Brendon McCullum missed out on the "supreme" (note my clever use of inverted commas there) award last night.

But try as I might, the righteous anger will not come. In its place is a barely perceptible shrug of the shoulders and a speech bubble above my head that says: "The sooner they scrap these awards for good, the better."

The fault is not with the athletes. Everyone long-listed for the Halbergs did something amazing in 2014, though none quite as amazing and emotion-charged as scoring a match-saving triple-century in front of a nation on tenterhooks.

The fault is with the ridiculously bloated judging panel and silly voting system the Halbergs have foisted on themselves. There are far too many judges on that panel with a single-sport interest. The judges don't meet to discuss and debate; instead they sit in isolation and bloodlessly fill out a form. It's the perfect recipe for apathy.

Every year we hear the same old twaddle about comparing apples and lemons but unless you sit around a table and talk it out, you're never going to get a real sense of what is floating the country's boat. Which brings us to our winners. You'd be a fool to try to downplay the achievements of Bond and Murray. For starters, the Olympic Mafiosi who subjugate these awards for their own entertainment have long memories. For enders, they are remarkable athletes, perhaps our finest ever, whose domination of one of many classes of the niche sport of rowing is astounding.

Well done.

But to those of you judges who couldn't see that a once-in-a-lifetime (actually, it's once in several lifetimes) masterpiece that stopped the nation wasn't the pinnacle of sporting achievement in this country for 2014, then I feel sorry for you.

Image 1 of 14: Sophie Pascoe (R) arrives at the 2015 Halberg Awards at Vector Arena. Photo / Getty Images

You've either forgotten, or never really understood, the essence of why people watch, and love, sport.

* The Halberg Awards are decided by a panel of 28, comprising media representatives (including two senior Herald sports journalists) and former athletes and coaches. The judges must decide which team showed the most "sporting excellence" during the previous year. The academy also assesses if the nominees were at their sport's pinnacle event. Each judge independently ranks the top eight picks for each category from a long-list. Selections are sent to organisers for collating.