Shearing king David Fagan is now Sir David in honour of his services to shearing.

Since shearer David Fagan's knighthood was announced in the New Year honours list, there have been some surprisingly ignorant questions posed, particularly on social media.

Fagan? What about Dan Carter or Brendon McCullum? That's a common sentiment.

Our honours system is disappointingly flawed, partly because it has become so political. However, the decision to knight Fagan was good.

Unlike our cricketers and rugby players, who compete in a massive media spotlight, and are supported by marketing and comms staff, shearers are semi-anonymous figures.

READ MORE: Arise, Sir David Fagan

Fagan won 16 Golden Shears crowns (the Wimbledon of his sport), plus 11 world titles. Yet he could walk down Queen St or Lambton Quay and hardly a head would turn in his direction.

The Prime Minister hasn't been breaking his neck to be photographed with him, there haven't been high-profile advertising campaigns, sponsors largely shun him, he's not in the Sports Hall of Fame and has never won a Halberg Award.

Yet Fagan, 54, is undoubtedly one of New Zealand's greatest sportsmen.

I once asked farmer and former All Black captain Brian Lochore how shearing compared with rugby as a sport.

"Shearing at the pace they do in competition is very, very difficult," he said. "There's the hand-eye co-ordination and the whole body has to be working.

"You're holding the sheep with your legs and your concentration has to be full-on. At that speed, if you make one slip, you're gone.

"It's physically very gruelling and then having to bend over like that makes it even tougher. David Fagan is up there with our greatest sportsmen."

Fagan has been a superlative competitor, always able to find a way to win – the mark of a champion.

There have been two really great New Zealand shearers – Brian Quinn and Fagan.

Quinn won the Golden Shears six times, a mark followers of the sport said would never be beaten. They even adopted The Mighty Quinn, Manfred Mann's version of the Bob Dylan classic, just for Brian Quinn.

Prime Minister Keith Holyoake, who followed shearing closely, once said of Quinn: "He's everything a good shearer shouldn't be except the best in the world."

But good as Quinn was, Fagan's record puts him well clear. He's still among the best in the world in his mid-50s. Imagine that.

Shearers are a hardy bunch. They talk of the "20-minute sprint" and will do three of them virtually back to back.

I love how our shearing champions come from places like Lawrence, Rakaia, Apiti, Frankton, Te Puke, Alexandra, Wellsford, Gisborne, Milton, Puhoi, Orepuki, Taumarunui, Pio Pio and Riversdale – far away from the flashing lights and big-city media.

Fagan is a Te Kuiti man, as is another New Zealand sports knight, Colin Meads. They sometimes run into each other at the pub on Friday nights and share a beer. Good down-to-earth blokes.

Meads has for decades rightly been feted as one of our All Black legends.

Now Fagan has found himself not on the farming pages but the front pages, not a television news curiosity, but a lead story.

Yes, the All Blacks were magnificent in 2015, and so were Lydia Ko, Lisa Carrington and others.

But David Fagan sits comfortably alongside them in the pantheon of sports greats.