After much debate and head scratching, the Sport24 team have announced their Performers, Plonkers and Pictures of the month for July 2009.

Every month the Sport24 editorial team will announce nominations for a sportsperson or team (people who stole the limelight with a specific performance that month), a plonker (a team or person who has not covered themselves in glory) and a sports photo of the month (the one that makes you go "Ahhh"). You then get a chance to vote for the person, team and picture that best deserves the award...

So without further ado, then, the July nominations are...

PERFORMANCE:

Narrowing down the nominations for the July star of the month proved tricky with several candidates returning performances worthy of recognition.

Heinrich Brussow
The diminutive Free State flanker confirmed his emergence as the fetching find of the year internationally by earning a deserved man-of-the-match mantle as the Springboks got their Tri-Nations campaign off to a flier by beating the All Blacks 28-19 in Bloemfontein – you’ve got to be good if you can eclipse Richie McCaw in the breakdown “pilfering” department.

Rudi Koertzen
This month the Knysna-born umpire with the famous “slow death” finger achieved two luminary milestones: first umpire ever to stand in 200 one-day internationals, and shortly afterwards the second to officiate in 100 Tests, when he stood at Lord’s in the second Ashes Test. All pretty good going in your 61st year …

Khotso Mokoena
Long-legged and customarily long-socked, South Africa’s long-jump ace set a new Africa record in the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Madrid, reaching 8.50 metres and shattering a previous landmark held for 12 years. The Heidelberg (Gauteng) product finished second to Fabrice Lapierre, but had certainly done his country and entire continent proud.

Kaizer Chiefs
The Soweto glamour club added a further crown to their tapestry of achievements down the years by beating cash-flush English Premiership club Manchester City in the final of the 2009 Vodacom Challenge, a match decided by Jeffrey Ntuka’s goal at the end of the first half. The visitors’ manager Mark Hughes lauded Chiefs for “playing exceptionally well” to down his expensively-assembled side.

Cameron van der Burgh
All that glittered was indeed gold as the Pretoria-born South African torpedoed his way to a world-record 26.67-sec time in the final of the long course men’s 50m breaststroke event at the FINA World Championships in Rome late in the month, beating his own semis mark in the process. At a tender 21, Van der Burgh promises many more swimming milestones …

PLONKERS:

And in the not so serious plonker category... Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the biggest plonker of them all?

The Springboks
Yes, very strange given that they took the British and Irish Lions series 2-1. But all men make mistakes and their “Justice 4 Bakkies” protest in the third Test against the Lions was exactly that, earning the team some global public and media scorn, and a telling-off from the IRB. There is a time and a place for everything, and the fact that they surrendered the dead-rubber Test by a 19-point margin seemed to suggest the issue had indeed taken their eyes off the ball …

Peter de Villiers
Also in the lead-up to the final Lions Test in Johannesburg, the Springbok coach’s legendary eccentricity got back into power-fifth gear: the visiting UK media and their local counterparts had a field day as Div wittered on about Schalk Burger’s angelic makeup despite the “eye-gouging” affair, suggested people who couldn’t handle rugby heat should get into ballet tutus, and also pointed out that if South Africans really wanted to eye-gouge lions, they could go and track the real beasts in the bushveld. Oh, and his black mechanics/white mechanics theory also forced his employers to at least partially muzzle that busy, moustachioed mouth …

CSA v GCB
An almighty, bitter and embarrassing exchange of missiles took place between Cricket South Africa and one of its giant franchises, the Gauteng Cricket Board, in the aftermath of the Indian Premier League takeover of the Wanderers a few weeks earlier. The GCB effectively accused CSA managing director Gerald Majola of letting the IPL steamroller rights to the stadium, to the disenchantment of evicted suite-holders, while CSA ripped right back by stripping the Bullring of some of its best scheduled international matches this summer.

IBO world title flop
There was Muhammad Ali-like “lip” from both camps in the lead-up to a supposed boxing war between highly-touted young South Africans Tommy Oosthuizen and Jared Lovett for the IBO light heavyweight youth title at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park. But the hype turned hot air come fight-night: after a rip-roaring first 20 seconds or so, the bout evolved into a 10-round snore-fest as Lovett, struggling to get inside the defence of his southpaw opponent, succumbed tamely to a 10-round points decision.

Swimming South Africa
Walloped! That’s about the best way to describe our national teams’ respective showings at the World Champs in Rome, which begged the question of why hundreds of thousands of Rands were spent sending a lot of them on long-haul flights in the first place? Sure the athletes need to get experience, but the men’s water polo side were beaten 4-14, 1-12 and 5-15, while the women were even worse, losing 5-12, 2-23 and 5-20. That is a whopping 22-96 reverse with not a win in sight!

PHOTOS

In a bid to deservedly salute the photographers doing the hard graft on the sidelines. Sport24 have put together a gallery of the "Best of the Best" pictures of the month of July. They're guaranteed to leave you speechless. Best of the best pictures

Reader voting

Readers monthly votes will decide the 12 finalists in each category, and it is from those 12 finalists that Sport24 will decide their Star, Plonker and Picture of the Year in December.

Click HERE to cast your vote.