Witz78 wrote:I think the likes of Lisowski and others have slacked off bigtime and must have the arrogant attitude of "oh theres tons of events so i'll come good in a few of them and have decent runs"
that's pretty much a straight quote from Ronnies book and its pretty true id say. Players just thinking the law of averages means they'll do well at some point. Whereas the DIngs and Fus of this world are adapting to playing well in every event and being thoroughly professional.
I think at the moment the over 35s (the so called journeymen in many cases) are grasping the additional playing opportunities far more, as they remember snooker in the bad old days when playing and earning opportunities were few and far between, so there desperate to grab what cash from the game they can before the inevitable happens and they are over run by the new generation.
I'll make a bold prediction right now that by the 2016 World Championship half of the top 16 will be under 25 and also that half of the top 16 will be Asian.
I think you're right that the current crop of older players are reacting to the changed system, but not sure it's just 'grab the cash'. I think a lot felt cheated by playing in an era with so few opportunities, and they're hungry for what success they can grab too. There's an element (as you say) of the younger players thinking they have lots of time so 'why worry' too.
The Chinese clearly think along the same lines as yourself, in that when they have opportunities to enter players into tournaments, they ignore the older players in the belief that the young ones are the future and need the experience. So an older player such as Jū Rètí doesn't get wild card opportunities or get entered into the IBSF World Championship (16 year old Zhào Xīntóng and 15 year old Zhōu Yuèlóng entered for this years Mens Championship for instance, rather than just the Under 21 Championship).
However, I'm not sure I share your opinion - I think players with outstanding natural ability will emerge young, but I think most players need to learn a lot about shot choice, different ways of playing in different circumstances etc and they also need to learn to focus more, and so will emerge from the pack at a whole variety of ages.
I think the flat 128 draw is a bit of a barrier too, at least unless the way it is managed is altered. A declining player ranked between 50 and 64 gets to play their first ranking tournament match against a lower ranked player, probably half the time against players below 96. Whilst an up and coming young player ranked 65 - 80 (say) plays their first match against a higher ranked player, and half the time draws a player in the top 32. I just wish they'd only seed the top 32 or top 16 or whatever in some ranking tournaments - varying it is the key to not having players protected at some point in the rankings. So whilst I prefer flat draws, I think we've moved from one system that protected players who are in decline, to another system that does the same, although to a lesser extent.