Louisa Wall: Halberg shows where its interests lie

I think Michael Campbell summed up the mood of the nation quite succinctly when he returned just before Christmas for the Maori Sports Awards. In his attempt to disperse the limelight his T-shirt at the airport read "REUBEN ROCKS TANA RULES".

And who would challenge such an assertion?

Well, the Halberg Trust excluded the Kiwis from the Team of the Year category at its annual awards on February 17.

And this after Kiwi captain Ruben Wiki was named 2005 Samoan Sportsperson of the Year and received various other awards as league's most capped player and Benji Marshall was a finalist in the Maori Sportsman of the Year category.

I realised the Kiwi team and Wiki's exclusion were not so surprising when I looked at the Halberg Trust website. They made mention of every other feat this year; Campbell, the Silver Ferns' 25-goal and largest winning margin over the Australians, our now famous four rowing medals in one afternoon, the All Blacks success, but not a peep about the success of the Kiwis.

This act alone pretty much sums up the value or otherwise that the Halberg institution places on league.

It seems to have ignored the fact that league means a lot to Pacific and Maori communities and excluding the Kiwis and Ruben, in a lot of ways excludes these communities from such events.

And when you look at the list of Halberg trustees it is difficult to see who represents such community interests and it would be equally interesting to see who the judging panel representing the media, athletes and coaches are and what communities of interest they represent.

I attended both the Samoan and Maori Sports Awards last year, both held at the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre and the pride and participation of the Samoan and Maori communities was sensational.

Campbell managed to fill seven tables with his whanau with the tickets for the Samoan Sports Awards $100 and the Maori Sports Awards $155.

The Halbergs tickets are $400, so it will be interesting to see how many of the whanau are able to attend.

The context of the Kiwis victory is important - it's an international event that the three leading league nations were competing in.

It was a home and away tri-series win where New Zealand was rated such a no-chance that no accommodation had been booked for them in Leeds on the week of the final.

Even my mate Tony Johnson of Sky Sport concurred that the All Blacks and the Kiwis had to be Halberg finalists for Team of the Year award.

At the end of the day, 2005 was an exceptional sporting year and what great success we, as a sporting nation, experienced.

When we look at the New Year's honours it is interesting to see the prominence of our sportspeople.

It was great to see Stacey Jones and Campbell honoured.

And for Stacey it was about his code and the people he represents being honoured.

Undoubtedly, the sporting highlight for me was not the actual victory of the Kiwis but the succession of interviews post-match when the players and coaching staff where at their most raw.

Stacey had flown from France to Auckland for the birth of his son, then to England for the final and he said he would not have missed it for the world, even though he did not know what day it was. Coach Brian McClennan, a finalist for Coach of the Year, could not contain his enthusiasm.

But the bloke that provided the greatest highlight and insight into the magnitude of the victory was Wiki - those tears said it all.

So, does it really matter to these players' communities of interest that they have missed the Halberg cut? Not even, ow!


* Louisa Wall is a former New Zealand netball and rugby representative.