Drysdale slams Halberg choice

The All Whites team hold the Team of the Year and Supreme trophy during the Westpac Halberg Awards. Photo / Getty Images

Rowing legend Mahe Drysdale has slammed the Halberg Awards, saying the All Whites did not even deserve to be finalists.

The three-time sportsman of the year said the awards are about sporting excellence and should remain solely the preserve of winners.

The All Whites were judged team of the year on Thursday night, as well as picking up the Halberg Supreme Award, provoking Drysdale's reaction.

"If the All Whites had won the World Cup, then no issue - scrap the nomination process and give them a clean sweep," he told the Herald on Sunday. "If they had made the semifinals, for example, then maybe that is a case where they are worthy over an actual winner.

"But the fact is they won one out of nine games and didn't even finish in the top 16 at the World Cup."

Drysdale said that by the same logic, the 2007 All Blacks should have been acclaimed at the Halberg awards.

"I don't want to take anything away from the All Whites but you didn't see the All Blacks get a nomination after making the quarter-finals of the last World Cup, which you could argue was a better result.

"The All Whites performed well at the World Cup - they didn't win anything but they performed higher than expected, so therefore they are judged as a huge success.

"[In contrast] the rowers or the All Blacks are expected to perform at a top level, so their achievements are not as highly regarded.

"I think that is poor - a win is a win whether you are the favourite or an outsider."

The double Olympian added that any of the other category winners would have been more worthy recipients of the Supreme Award.

"I would have given it to Richie [McCaw] or Valerie [Adams] any day over the All Whites; I don't want to be disrespectful but I just don't feel they should be in that company."

Most observers were surprised Adams picked up her fifth Halberg gong, based on a gold medal claimed over virtually non-existent competition at the Delhi Commonwealth Games and a series of second places throughout 2010.

Drysdale dismissed the view that the global nature of football, the national sport in the vast majority of countries throughout the world, should be taken into account against semi-global sports like rowing and cycling and non-global games like rugby, netball or cricket.

"That is something you take into account to compare if you win," Drysdale said, "but until then, it is just about winning. When all is said and done, they finished outside the top 16. The awards are about recognising winners, not judging athletes compared to expectations."

Drysdale says sports need to aim as high as possible, and cites rowing as a case in point.

"Everybody says that New Zealand could never win the [football] World Cup but you never know what is possible.

"In the mid-90s, winning 10 medals at a rowing world championships would have been seen as impossible. We could barely win one and there were many countries way ahead of us.

"But look where we are now, thanks to a great programme and systems. That is how the impossible becomes possible."

Drysdale emphasised he was not anti-football. Together with the rest of the rowing team, he watched all three games and "was leaping off the couch like every other Kiwi" after the draws with Slovakia and Italy.

"If there was an award for most inspirational performance, they should definitely get it. They captured the imagination of the nation more than any other sport - and the sporting moment award was perfect for them. But winning one game in nine is not about sporting excellence and that is what the awards need to be about: rewarding champions."

No All Whites approached by the Herald on Sunday were prepared to comment on Drysdale's views but several were understood to be disappointed by his comments.