Apples v Oranges: Who wins?

OPINION: Early January is always open season on the Halberg Award judges.

It's very easy to take pot shots at the panel each New Year when the list of finalists are revealed at the height of the summer "silly season".

Much of the head-shaking yesterday revolved around the shortlist for Sportsman of the Year, with world champion rower Mahe Drysdale joined by fellow oarsman Duncan Grant, Indy 500 motor racing driver Scott Dixon, All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and Black Caps skipper Daniel Vettori.

At least one national columnist yesterday was aghast at the omission of David Tua. It's hard to share his sense of dudgeon. What did Tua do? Come out of a lengthy layoff to easily eclipse an outclassed compatriot, Shane Cameron, in one of the most over-hyped, underwhelming fights in New Zealand boxing history.

The judges are in tricky territory in rating individuals like Drysdale and Dixon alongside team sportsmen such as McCaw and Vettori.

How do you assess winning a world singles sculls gold medal alongside leading the All Blacks to an unbeaten northern hemisphere grand slam tour?

Grant and Dixon win titles through their own efforts. McCaw needs the 14 men alongside him and Vettori requires his Black Cap buddies to hold their catches.

It is time, surely, for a separate Halberg Awards category: Best Performer within a Team Sport.

That latitude would have allowed the judges to group Drysdale, Dixon and Grant on the shortlist of Individual Sportsman of the Year, with Vettori and McCaw with several of the All Whites and possibly a Black Sticks hockey player in the Best Performer within a Team Sport contenders.

That would be a fairer system – otherwise team sports practitioners will always lose out to an individual world or Olympic champion. The most egregious omission, in my view, was the failure to honour Black Sox pitcher Michael White after he pitched a perfect game – no hits conceded, no runners on base – against a classy Canadian team in the world championships final in 1996.

But it's all academic this year. Drysdale should be a hands-down winner for Sportsman and the only rival to Sportswoman of the Year Valerie Vili for the overall Halberg Award title.

Drysdale won the world rower of the year title for his feat in securing another singles sculls title after his dramatic illness-affected bronze medal performance in Beijing in 2008.

His is a story of courage, class and consistency.

There is one primary question judges must consider as they mull over nominations. "What have they won?"

On that score, it is hard to see how Vettori and McCaw can be ranked with Drysdale and Grant, the world lightweight sculls champion. The Black Caps won nothing in 2009 – though they were beaten finalists in the ICC Champions Trophy one-day final.

The All Blacks were a distant second – on performance – to South Africa in the Tri-Nations. A grand slam northern tour hardly ranks as a world-class feat.

As much as I admire McCaw – one of the top four All Blacks of my memory (alongside Colin Meads, Michael Jones and Dan Carter) – he's had better years than 2009 and it was somewhat surprising to see him edge out Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll as the International Rugby Board player of the year.

Like McCaw, Vettori has cemented his place as a world-class practitioner and shouldered selection and coaching duties, too.

But I would bypass both of them for All Whites goalkeeper Mark Paston. Paston's two world-class saves in Manama kept the World Cup qualifying tie against Bahrain alive.

Paston backed up in Wellington with the most important penalty save in New Zealand football history.

- © Fairfax NZ News