Morne Steyn has been voted by the Sport24 readers as the man who delivered the performance of 2009!

Yes, the votes are in – all 8 326 of them - and we here at Sport24 are chuffed to be able to announce the Performance, Plonker and Picture of 2009 …

The Sport24 awards are unique in two ways: They are about a single performance rather than an aggregated effort over 12 months, and the winners are decided by the Sport24 readers. So if a sportsman or woman is nominated for 3 different performances in 3 different months, as our winner was, then in effect they compete with themselves for the “Performance of the Year”. Their votes do not get added together – the awards are based on individual performances in a given month.

So while Morne Steyn was nominated three times (as decided by reader votes on a monthly basis), it was the Bulls idol’s 53m penalty on the hooter that settled not only the match but the series against the British and Irish Lions too that got him the “Performance of the Year”.

The original cool customer, it seems, he was brought belatedly off the bench in the brutal, dramatic second Test against the Lions at Loftus, and did the business. What more could a Bok fan wish for?

How the voting went can be seen below, but Steyn saw off another magnificent performance from Graeme Smith. His decision to go out to bat at No 11, while nursing two painful injuries, to try to save the dead-rubber Test for his country at the Sydney Cricket Ground is the stuff of folklore. The skipper’s never stood accused of lacking old-fashioned guts …

Plonker of the Year

And in the much more tongue in cheek category given that sport cannot always be a serious business, we note with much humour, that Ras Dumisani has been voted the “Plonker of the Year” by the Sport24 readers …

Probably the most infamous and incompetent rendition of the national anthem ever, as Ras Dumisani the reggae “artist”, fluffed his lines to the bemusement or downright anger of the Springbok rugby team before their Test defeat to France late last year. Some wags said that at least he united the nation … in common uproar!

Dumisani  saw off a brave effort for “Plonkerhood” from Leonard Chuene. All sorts of villains were cited – the media, racists, inconsiderate scientists, aliens from Jupiter – over the tawdry Caster Semenya gender furore. Athletics South Africa boss Chuene quickly bandied about the “racist” card himself … but then we suddenly learned that he lied about not knowing about gender tests conducted on Semenya, and also ignored advice to withdraw her from the World Athletics Championships before the proverbial poo hit the fan.

Picture of the Year

There were 12 magnificent images for readers to choose from, but the runaway winner, with 34% of the votes, was the one we called “Dakar 2009” by Gabriel Bouys of AFP Photo.



CLICK HERE to make this image your PC wallpaper.

So to how the actual final votes went:

Performance of the Year:

June - Morne Steyn 33.4%
January - Graeme Smith 23.8%
July – Morne Steyn 9.3%
September – Fourie du Preez 9.0%
August – Heinrich Brussow 8.1%
May – Morne Steyn 4.2%
February – Pierre Spies 2.7%
December – Bryan Habana 2.7%
October – Fourie du Preez 1.7%
March – Jonathan Kaplan 1.7%
April – AB de Villiers 1.6%
November – Cameron vd Bergh 1.3%

Plonker of the Year:

November – Ras Dumisani 31.7%
September – Leonard Chuene 19.2%
August – Athletics SA 14.9%
October – Joost vd Westhuizen 11.3%
February – Cheeky Watson 6.8%
January – OJ Mabizela 4.3%
June – Peter de Villiers 3.0%
May – The Sharks 2.7%
April – Butana Komphela 2.3%
July – Peter de Villiers 1.7%
March – Benni McCarthy 1.1%
December – Rayno Benjamin 0.5%

Picture of the Year:

“Dakar 2009” by Gabriel Bouys of AFP Photo - 34% of the votes