Halberg Team Awards
Leaguies up and down the country are all up in arms about the decision not to include the New Zealand League team as finalists for the Halberg Awards. The finalists are three rowing teams and the All Blacks.
While I feel for the League team and their supporters, I think the decision to favour rowing and Rugby is fair - the achievements in those sports are the equal of the league teams result, but rugby and rowing are sports that are more widely competed throughout the world, so have tougher competition.
Also missing out was Netball, who had a sublime year - but Netball is only serious in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Carribean. In England it has been overtaken by Soccer and in the rest of the world they haven't even heard of it.
Rugby League is only played seriously in some parts of Australia, some parts of England, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Rugby is not a global sport yet, but is played seriously in over a dozen countries (Six Nations, Tri-Nations, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Argentina, plus USA, Canada, Romania, Namibia and Georgia) and rowing is an important sport in Eastern Europe and North America, as well as New Zealand and Australia.
While I feel for the League team and their supporters, I think the decision to favour rowing and Rugby is fair - the achievements in those sports are the equal of the league teams result, but rugby and rowing are sports that are more widely competed throughout the world, so have tougher competition.
Also missing out was Netball, who had a sublime year - but Netball is only serious in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Carribean. In England it has been overtaken by Soccer and in the rest of the world they haven't even heard of it.
Rugby League is only played seriously in some parts of Australia, some parts of England, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Rugby is not a global sport yet, but is played seriously in over a dozen countries (Six Nations, Tri-Nations, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Argentina, plus USA, Canada, Romania, Namibia and Georgia) and rowing is an important sport in Eastern Europe and North America, as well as New Zealand and Australia.
posted by Michael at
8:47 PM
2 Comments:
I totally get your point and I guess it was a tough decision to leave one excellent achievement out. However, I reckon knocking over the Kangaroos was massive - it's been more than 20 years since anyone has done that. You could argue that the Evers-Swindell twins should miss out because they were overwhelming favourites and simply did what was expected. Either way, all seems fair enough.
Now, when did Soccer overtake Netball in the English consciousness??? Don't think it was ever in front! In England, Football comes first, then nothing.
By
Rich, at 10:29 AM
Soccer overtaking Netball - I meant in numbers of participants by women.
Soccer has always been England's National Game.
By
Michael, at 6:26 PM
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