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Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby The_Abbott

SnookerFan wrote:
The_Abbott wrote:well its inevitable. One day soon they will all drop and its not like any of the Class of 92 will slip down they will all retire when the slip out the Top 16 I reckon.

We also need some young British talent or we will get left behind. Not many 20 somethings from the UK on the tour.


Their nationality doesn't really bother me.

We've had generations of players mainly from Britain and Ireland. As a Brit, a player's country of origin doesn't really come into it for me when choosing who to support. Ding is one of my favourite players, I wanted Zhao to win yesterday. Quite like Robertson etc.

Maybe if we reached a point where the main tour was 99% non-Brit, I'd started supporting the one's that were. But at the moment, I actually am quite happy for the tour to become more international.


SO do I. I was just saying we need to catch up otherwise there will be very home grown players to cheer on. We don't want Snooker to go the way of Tennis!

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby mick745

In my view the more global the reach the better, the more countries who have their "own" player(s) to cheer on the better.

It doesnt mean that we wont all enjoy the top players anyway, if ROS had been born say Austrian, would it have diminished his appeal? Maybe slightly in pur country but probably have been more than made up for by attracting fans from elsewhere.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby SnookerFan

mick745 wrote:The players at the top who are now in their 40s have had it their own way for a very long time, but many of them no longer look like they'll be regular tournament winners from now on. Higgins, Williams, O'S etc are not now going to get any better, the only question is how long they will now hang around at the top of the rankings.

Even the ones who followed the class of 92, Selby, Murphy, Robertson, may be starting to crack.

Is the UK final line-up (two young players, neither from the uk) a sign of things to come?

Ding has now been unsurped by younger chinese players (he's now the 4th highest ranked chinese player). Is the chinese takeover finally being realised?

Is the future now in the hands of Brecel, Xintong, Yuelong, Bingtao, Boiko, LBM, etc?


Why do we need to change the guard?

Covert I am a twat. :grrr:

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby mick745

SnookerFan wrote:
mick745 wrote:The players at the top who are now in their 40s have had it their own way for a very long time, but many of them no longer look like they'll be regular tournament winners from now on. Higgins, Williams, O'S etc are not now going to get any better, the only question is how long they will now hang around at the top of the rankings.

Even the ones who followed the class of 92, Selby, Murphy, Robertson, may be starting to crack.

Is the UK final line-up (two young players, neither from the uk) a sign of things to come?

Ding has now been unsurped by younger chinese players (he's now the 4th highest ranked chinese player). Is the chinese takeover finally being realised?

Is the future now in the hands of Brecel, Xintong, Yuelong, Bingtao, Boiko, LBM, etc?


Why do we need to change the guard?

Covert I am a hammer. :grrr:


All sports rely on a change of faces, personalities and winners to keep fresh, snooker has really suffered from a blockage at the top of the rankings for what seems a very long time (i am talking about casual fans and potential new fans, us snooker nuts who post on here have a different perspective).

Some new faces, young dynamic and exciting players to watch would do no harm.

I ask do people want to see a bunch of 40+ year olds knocking balls around a table?

A casual viewer switching on the world championships to find a bo25 between Bingham and Dott just getting underway are probably wondering why and how these players are still around.

If the switch on to see a close match between Xintong v Trump then that is different.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby Prop

I didn’t realise things were going that way in China. Not good news. I think the point about having different nationalities at the top of the game is that it might help boost the popularity of the sport globally. As a fan watching the game, I don’t really care where a player is from, but I agree that it’s healthier for the bigger picture if we have a strong fanbase in China, mainland Europe, UK, as many places as possible really.

It’s a fair assumption that the likes of the co92 were part of a large number of young fans that were influenced by the 80s boom. It made an impression on so many people, and produced lots of great players. So that’s the fear. If we don’t have those fans around the world now, we won’t see the riches in new talents born from today’s snooker in the future.

As for the changing of the guard, well we just don’t know. But gun to head I’ll have to say no. We’ve seen this time and time again. Liang, Maguire, the list goes on. Look how long it’s taken Judd to actually get to the point he’s won the Worlds once. And Judd is as dominant a player as we’ve seen in the last few years. Today’s snooker doesn’t really have dominant players like it used to. And is there even a guard to change?

Don’t get me wrong here, Zhao in particular is an absolutely stunning player. He’s got all the ingredients, as well as that certain magic that even a fair few World Champions never had. I just hope he doesn’t get crippled with expectation. That happens too much in snooker. Both Ding and Judd have been lumped with heavy hype, and often you’d have to question just how good it’s been for their games. We all want to see Zhao reach his potential, but that won’t happen if media/pundits/press make too much of it at the first sign of a special talent starting to break into the top of the game.

Zebra.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby Iranu

I think we’re forgetting something. Ronnie O’Sullivan has given Zhao a huge vote of confidence.

That’s basically a death knell on his career.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby Prop

Iranu wrote:I think we’re forgetting something. Ronnie O’Sullivan has given Zhao a huge vote of confidence.

That’s basically a death knell on his career.


buck. You’re right.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby SnookerFan

mick745 wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:
mick745 wrote:The players at the top who are now in their 40s have had it their own way for a very long time, but many of them no longer look like they'll be regular tournament winners from now on. Higgins, Williams, O'S etc are not now going to get any better, the only question is how long they will now hang around at the top of the rankings.

Even the ones who followed the class of 92, Selby, Murphy, Robertson, may be starting to crack.

Is the UK final line-up (two young players, neither from the uk) a sign of things to come?

Ding has now been unsurped by younger chinese players (he's now the 4th highest ranked chinese player). Is the chinese takeover finally being realised?

Is the future now in the hands of Brecel, Xintong, Yuelong, Bingtao, Boiko, LBM, etc?


Why do we need to change the guard?

Covert I am a hammer. :grrr:


All sports rely on a change of faces, personalities and winners to keep fresh, snooker has really suffered from a blockage at the top of the rankings for what seems a very long time (i am talking about casual fans and potential new fans, us snooker nuts who post on here have a different perspective).

Some new faces, young dynamic and exciting players to watch would do no harm.

I ask do people want to see a bunch of 40+ year olds knocking balls around a table?

A casual viewer switching on the world championships to find a bo25 between Bingham and Dott just getting underway are probably wondering why and how these players are still around.

If the switch on to see a close match between Xintong v Trump then that is different.


It was a joke, but it doesn't really work because you've got the Swear Filter. If you say somebody is a hater of Ronnie on this site, it changes it to I Am A hammer apparently.

I was joshing because Johnny Bravo keeps calling me a I am a twat at the moment.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby gninnur karona

Prop wrote:I didn’t realise things were going that way in China. Not good news. I think the point about having different nationalities at the top of the game is that it might help boost the popularity of the sport globally. As a fan watching the game, I don’t really care where a player is from, but I agree that it’s healthier for the bigger picture if we have a strong fanbase in China, mainland Europe, UK, as many places as possible really.

It’s a fair assumption that the likes of the co92 were part of a large number of young fans that were influenced by the 80s boom. It made an impression on so many people, and produced lots of great players. So that’s the fear. If we don’t have those fans around the world now, we won’t see the riches in new talents born from today’s snooker in the future.

As for the changing of the guard, well we just don’t know. But gun to head I’ll have to say no. We’ve seen this time and time again. Liang, Maguire, the list goes on. Look how long it’s taken Judd to actually get to the point he’s won the Worlds once. And Judd is as dominant a player as we’ve seen in the last few years. Today’s snooker doesn’t really have dominant players like it used to. And is there even a guard to change?

Don’t get me wrong here, Zhao in particular is an absolutely stunning player. He’s got all the ingredients, as well as that certain magic that even a fair few World Champions never had. I just hope he doesn’t get crippled with expectation. That happens too much in snooker. Both Ding and Judd have been lumped with heavy hype, and often you’d have to question just how good it’s been for their games. We all want to see Zhao reach his potential, but that won’t happen if media/pundits/press make too much of it at the first sign of a special talent starting to break into the top of the game.

Zebra.


:goodpost:

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby TheRocket

We might have entered the transition period now which eventually will lead into the changing of the guard and the new era. The transition period could last around 2-3 years though which means a lot of different players will win titles during that period and players will share the titles. And thats where we are now.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby LDS

TheRocket wrote:We might have entered the transition period now which eventually will lead into the changing of the guard and the new era. The transition period could last around 2-3 years though which means a lot of different players will win titles during that period and players will share the titles. And thats where we are now.


Oh yes, these things don't happen overnight. There'll just be subtle changes over the years.

I was browsing the year's current rankings earlier today, having a nosey into who's in danger this season and, aside from Ding, who's getting a lot of attention during his slippy slide (which could be very temporary, or it might not), there's quite a bit more going on.

Stephen Maguire is on the cusp of freefalling from around no.10 spot all the way to no.30 spot in the next couple of months as his last big paydays were almost exactly 2 years ago. Meanwhile, other former mainstays, such as Joe Perry, Matthew Stephens and Graham Dott are back-peddling at quite a rate.

While any of them could have a good run at any moment & flip the slide, it doesn't take too many good performances from others to force a change in the top 16. For each one in, someone has to drop. And for an awful lot of the 'old guard' they're regularly relying on that one big win to keep them where they are nowadays & when they can't do that in just one season, the drops will be sudden and dramatic - as may well happen to Maguire & has already happened to Ding.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby mick745

A future with the following players all in the top 16 and winning tournaments would be okay by me:
Yan Bingtao
Zhao Xintong
Luca Brecel
Hossein Vafaei
Pang Junxu
Iulian Boiko
Ben Mertens
Stan Moody

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby McManusFan

mick745 wrote:A future with the following players all in the top 16 and winning tournaments would be okay by me:
Yan Bingtao
Zhao Xintong
Luca Brecel
Hossein Vafaei
Pang Junxu
Iulian Boiko
Ben Mertens
Stan Moody


No Lisowski?

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby mick745

McManusFan wrote:
mick745 wrote:A future with the following players all in the top 16 and winning tournaments would be okay by me:
Yan Bingtao
Zhao Xintong
Luca Brecel
Hossein Vafaei
Pang Junxu
Iulian Boiko
Ben Mertens
Stan Moody


No Lisowski?


Obviously i mentioned about 8 players there, there will be other players around also.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby lhpirnie

mick745 wrote:
McManusFan wrote:
mick745 wrote:A future with the following players all in the top 16 and winning tournaments would be okay by me:
Yan Bingtao
Zhao Xintong
Luca Brecel
Hossein Vafaei
Pang Junxu
Iulian Boiko
Ben Mertens
Stan Moody


No Lisowski?


Obviously i mentioned about 8 players there, there will be other players around also.

If we're talking players under 30, then we still have Zhou Yuelong, Jackson Page, Louis Heathcote, Arnie Ursenbacher, Joe O'Connor, Scott Donaldson, even Sunny Akani, and several other players from China. And then others who are still amateur. It does promise a very diverse top-16, which will be great.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby Johnny Bravo

mick745 wrote:The players at the top who are now in their 40s have had it their own way for a very long time, but many of them no longer look like they'll be regular tournament winners from now on. Higgins, Williams, O'S etc are not now going to get any better, the only question is how long they will now hang around at the top of the rankings.

Even the ones who followed the class of 92, Selby, Murphy, Robertson, may be starting to crack.

Is the UK final line-up (two young players, neither from the uk) a sign of things to come?

Ding has now been unsurped by younger chinese players (he's now the 4th highest ranked chinese player). Is the chinese takeover finally being realised?

Is the future now in the hands of Brecel, Xintong, Yuelong, Bingtao, Boiko, LBM, etc?

The class of 92 will still be at the top of the ranking until they reach 50 years old, so around 3 years from now on.
Robbo, Smurf and Selbo have between 5 to 7 years from now.
Trump is the one who still has at least a decade left and he'll remain the dominant player until he's around 40.

Re: Are we seeing a changing of the guard?

Postby Prop

Johnny Bravo wrote:
mick745 wrote:The players at the top who are now in their 40s have had it their own way for a very long time, but many of them no longer look like they'll be regular tournament winners from now on. Higgins, Williams, O'S etc are not now going to get any better, the only question is how long they will now hang around at the top of the rankings.

Even the ones who followed the class of 92, Selby, Murphy, Robertson, may be starting to crack.

Is the UK final line-up (two young players, neither from the uk) a sign of things to come?

Ding has now been unsurped by younger chinese players (he's now the 4th highest ranked chinese player). Is the chinese takeover finally being realised?

Is the future now in the hands of Brecel, Xintong, Yuelong, Bingtao, Boiko, LBM, etc?

The class of 92 will still be at the top of the ranking until they reach 50 years old, so around 3 years from now on.
Robbo, Smurf and Selbo have between 5 to 7 years from now.
Trump is the one who still has at least a decade left and he'll remain the dominant player until he's around 40.


Trump only really dominated for a couple of seasons. His form has dropped right off, hand in hand with his confidence. Right now it’s difficult to say anyone is dominating.

He might rediscover that form, and be the one the likes of Zhao aim to topple. But in my opinion he won’t, not quite, and the next few years could see a handful of players competing around the top.