Dylan Cleaver: Awards will once again overlook the blindingly obvious

Richie McCaw. Photo / AP

It is bear-baiting time.

As league fans enjoy the last stages of hibernation, along come the Halberg Awards (and a scandal) to prod them from their slumber.

Teased by the nominations of Benji Marshall, Stephen Kearney and the Kiwis, the Halberg voting academy, more inclined to ignore the 13-man code, have used a sharpened stick this year.

League doesn't win these things. Get Benji throwing flick passes while facing the wrong way in a boat and he might have a chance, but until then he will have to get used to flashing the sort of bowtied forced smile he'll be asked to wear at the Skycity Convention Centre on Thursday night.

During the first decade of the 21st century, the supreme award went to Valerie Adams thrice (2007,'08 and'09), Rob Waddell (2000) and following him Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, the Tall Blacks, the Silver Ferns, Sarah Ulmer, Michael Campbell and Mahe Drysdale.

Athletics (3), rowing (3), cycling, golf, basketball and netball.

Anything seem a bit out of whack there? It might be the leaguies who cry loudest and longest, but it is their 15-man brethren who should feel aggrieved.

In a decade when the All Blacks won the Tri-Nations seven times, have held the Bledisloe Cup since 2003, picked up three Grand Slams, maintained a winning record north of 80 per cent and have supplied two players, Richie McCaw and Daniel Carter, who will be recognised as genuine world greats in any era, they have won two minor gongs - team of the year and coach of the year in 2006.

The Halberg academy ignores the blindingly obvious fact that this country has produced one consistently genuine gold-standard sporting act, and before launching the argument that the All Blacks haven't won a World Cup since the days when boat shoes were in fashion, consider that Drysdale has won two sportsman of the years and the supreme award without winning Olympic gold, the equivalent quadrennial measuring stick.

There are flaws in every argument, including this one, when it comes to the Halbergs - that's what happens when you try to compare apples with artichokes - but should rugby be penalised for not having a world championships every year, or should they be at least occasionally rewarded for finishing the year ranked No 1 in the world?

Again, the All Blacks finished 2010 as the best team on the planet. Again, they are probably going to be overlooked for the supreme award, this time by a team ranked 64th in the world, who have recently slipped behind the likes of mighty Gabon, Armenia and Panama. Evidence that soccer is a TRULY GLOBAL SPORT!, or that the All Blacks might just have been a better team in 2010 than the All Whites?

McCaw, who spends most of year toiling in and for New Zealand, is a monty to be pipped for sportsman of the year, as he was by this paper, by a man who spends most of his year giving everything he has for the flagship team of a Lancashire mill town.

Which isn't to say the All Whites and Ryan Nelsen, chuck Ricki Herbert in there as coach if you insist, are not worthy of recognition. Winless at the World Cup they might have been, but their efforts captivated the nation, far more so than the All Blacks end-of-year Grand Slam or Tri-Nations, or the Kiwis winning the Four Nations.

Marshall's incandescent brilliance and McCaw's overwhelming excellence do not lessen admirable Nelsen's stoicism and leadership, but they do raise an interesting question: what are we really celebrating here, sporting excellence or feel-good stories?

Halberg finalists

The supreme trophy, the Halberg Award, will be chosen from one of the following:

Sportsman of the year

Richie McCaw (rugby), Benji Marshall (league), Ryan Nelsen (soccer), Jossi Wells (freeskiing, X Games).

Sportswoman of the year

Valerie Adams (athletics), Nikki Hamblin (athletics), Joelle King (squash), Alison Shanks (cycling), Casey Williams (netball).

Team of the year:

All Blacks (rugby), All Whites (soccer), Kiwis (league), Eric Murray and Hamish Bond (rowing), Silver Ferns (netball).