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How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Erza Scarlet

Neal Founds said the Class of 92 may be past it after the Scottish Open final due to all the recent winners being from Selby's and Judd's generation, which is true since the Co92 made no impact half way through the season already and they're all 44 years old so I was wondering how many years you guys think each of them have got left to remain competitive for titles.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Ck147

Johnny Bravo wrote:Willo has none cause he can't be bothered.
Higgins has 2 or 3 at most.
ROS has around 5 cause he's more talented and in far better physical condition.

I can go with this, nice one JB.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby HustleKing

Ronnie: it's very much down to his attitude if he wants to be a serial winner for the next 3-5 years

Higgins: He'll need a lot of luck to win any rankers, but won't be winning any TC's

Williams: Could win a ranker or two like Higgins if he was professional, but he'll probably enjoy snake hissing around too much and will finish his career like Ken

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Erza Scarlet

Holden Chinaski wrote:Williams and Higgins are probably almost finished, but Ronnie can keep on going for another ten years if he wants. That's what I think at least.


Williams definitely looks semi-retired lol he was playing golf on his Snooker table.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Erza Scarlet

HustleKing wrote:Ronnie: it's very much down to his attitude if he wants to be a serial winner for the next 3-5 years

Higgins: He'll need a lot of luck to win any rankers, but won't be winning any TC's

Williams: Could win a ranker or two like Higgins if he was professional, but he'll probably enjoy snake hissing around too much and will finish his career like Ken


Nice post. At the moment I can't see where they could win a tournament from though and it's only going to get harder with Judd, Robertson, Selby, Ding all playing well. It might "officially" be changing of the guard or well, pushing them out.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Ck147

Erza Scarlet wrote:
HustleKing wrote:Ronnie: it's very much down to his attitude if he wants to be a serial winner for the next 3-5 years

Higgins: He'll need a lot of luck to win any rankers, but won't be winning any TC's

Williams: Could win a ranker or two like Higgins if he was professional, but he'll probably enjoy snake hissing around too much and will finish his career like Ken


Nice post. At the moment I can't see where they could win a tournament from though and it's only going to get harder with Judd, Robertson, Selby, Ding all playing well. It might "officially" be changing of the guard or well, pushing them out.

You remembered Robbo! So many forget. Think we all know it's downhill for them, if they do win something then great, they would have deserved it, but harder and harder for them now with the current crop playing at the level they are.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

Williams is the hardest to tell as his career has had so many slumps where he clearly loses interest and then regains it and has a return to form. The older he gets the harder it'll be to come back but he could still be fairly strong at 50. Of the other two I wouldn't be surprised if Higgins was still top 16 at 50 but if was to fall away and retire I could see O'Sullivan retiring shorty after. Those two have been at the top together for around 25 years without the drops that Williams had and if one of them was gone I could see the other retiring.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Andre147

If Ronnie starts playing more seriously we all know he'll win more events. Some seem to forget it was only a few months ago he won the Shanghai Masters beating the best players in the world.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby D4P

Andre147 wrote:If Ronnie starts playing more seriously we all know he'll win more events. Some seem to forget it was only a few months ago he won the Shanghai Masters beating the best players in the world.


I have to believe he's at least partly trying to reduce pressure/expectations and save energy for the WC this season. Then again, it also wouldn't be a shock if he were to skip the WC or screw around and bow out early again...

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Andre147

D4P wrote:
Andre147 wrote:If Ronnie starts playing more seriously we all know he'll win more events. Some seem to forget it was only a few months ago he won the Shanghai Masters beating the best players in the world.


I have to believe he's at least partly trying to reduce pressure/expectations and save energy for the WC this season. Then again, it also wouldn't be a shock if he were to skip the WC or screw around and bow out early again...


The latter is more likely.

However, I would love if he had a rubbish season by his standards and won the World Title.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby D4P

Andre147 wrote:The latter is more likely.

However, I would love if he had a rubbish season by his standards and won the World Title.


Agreed. Part of me thinks that Ronnie is treating this season like his 2012-2013 season, except that instead of taking the season off, he's just having fun and not trying too hard to win.

I have to think that his desire to win the WC in 2020 will be higher if his only win in the season was the Shanghai Masters, than if he were to win other events as well...

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Andre147

D4P wrote:
Andre147 wrote:The latter is more likely.

However, I would love if he had a rubbish season by his standards and won the World Title.


Agreed. Part of me thinks that Ronnie is treating this season like his 2012-2013 season, except that instead of taking the season off, he's just having fun and not trying too hard to win.

I have to think that his desire to win the WC in 2020 will be higher if his only win in the season was the Shanghai Masters, than if he were to win other events as well...


I think he might win one of the Coral events before the Worlds, probably the very first one.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Erza Scarlet

D4P wrote:
Andre147 wrote:The latter is more likely.

However, I would love if he had a rubbish season by his standards and won the World Title.


Agreed. Part of me thinks that Ronnie is treating this season like his 2012-2013 season, except that instead of taking the season off, he's just having fun and not trying too hard to win.

I have to think that his desire to win the WC in 2020 will be higher if his only win in the season was the Shanghai Masters, than if he were to win other events as well...


Hopefully, he usually wins the WC when he's been less successful for the rest of the season.

As long as he's in the mix it's fine, not asking to go back to winning 5 titles per season like in the previous 2 seasons...mentally and the standard of level of play he's shown in the last 2 seasons isn't there for that to happen but a few here and there to keep him competitive vs the field is fine at this stage of his career.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby csprince

Erza Scarlet wrote:Neal Founds said the Class of 92 may be past it after the Scottish Open final due to all the recent winners being from Selby's and Judd's generation, which is true since the Co92 made no impact half way through the season already and they're all 44 years old so I was wondering how many years you guys think each of them have got left to remain competitive for titles.
it comes down 2 how badly they want it williams and o'sullivan seem 2 have one eye on retirement higgins said last year about staying in the top 16 i think with higgins trying a new cue that suggests he still wants it needs the prize money 2 pay 4 taxi's.o'sullivans go 4 everything attitude could be a sigh of decline skipping the masters is interesting maybe he feels his game isn't there 2 compete.crowd could get on his back if they feel he's not giving 100%.williams attitude and hunger has changed since winning the world's.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Andre147

Some might think Ronnie had a better chance to win another World Title last 2 season because he was bang in form.

But we all know the Worlds is a unique tournament, and more often than not form can go out the window very quickly there.

Well he can't get much worse than last season, so hopefully he does himself justice this time. I think if he reaches one table setup he'll be up for it.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby D4P

Andre147 wrote:Some might think Ronnie had a better chance to win another World Title last 2 season because he was bang in form.


This line of thinking is understandable, but using my 20/20 hindsight I think it seems very likely that Ronnie was burnt out and had done his "share" of winning by the time he reached the Crucible in each of the past 2 seasons. All of the winning he had done ended up putting too much pressure on him as the favorite, which he didn't respond very well to.

It's probably no coincidence that his last 2 WCs were won with him as a non-favorite, and I wouldn't be surprised if his approach to this season is at least partly being guided by a desire to enter the WC this season as a non-favorite (as much as possible) again...

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby csprince

Erza Scarlet wrote:Neal Founds said the Class of 92 may be past it after the Scottish Open final due to all the recent winners being from Selby's and Judd's generation, which is true since the Co92 made no impact half way through the season already and they're all 44 years old so I was wondering how many years you guys think each of them have got left to remain competitive for titles.
who is neal founds

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby HustleKing

csprince wrote:
Erza Scarlet wrote:Neal Founds said the Class of 92 may be past it after the Scottish Open final due to all the recent winners being from Selby's and Judd's generation, which is true since the Co92 made no impact half way through the season already and they're all 44 years old so I was wondering how many years you guys think each of them have got left to remain competitive for titles.
who is neal founds


A hypocritical former snooker player turned analyst, who delights in criticizing players over 40, but who didn't have the guts to one play pro match after the age of 39

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby SnookerFan

HustleKing wrote:
csprince wrote:
Erza Scarlet wrote:Neal Founds said the Class of 92 may be past it after the Scottish Open final due to all the recent winners being from Selby's and Judd's generation, which is true since the Co92 made no impact half way through the season already and they're all 44 years old so I was wondering how many years you guys think each of them have got left to remain competitive for titles.
who is neal founds


A hypocritical former snooker player turned analyst, who delights in criticizing players over 40, but who didn't have the guts to one play pro match after the age of 39


Foulds is a decent commentator, in my opinion.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby Pink Ball

O’Sullivan has a healthy lifestyle and I think he could live to 85+.

Higgins hasn’t aged well, and I wonder if the Belfast incident was indicative of his lifestyle. I think he’ll make it no further than 75.

Williams loves kebabs and I think he could kick the bucket in his early 60s.

Morbid OP btw.

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby SnookerFan

Pink Ball wrote:O’Sullivan has a healthy lifestyle and I think he could live to 85+.

Higgins hasn’t aged well, and I wonder if the Belfast incident was indicative of his lifestyle. I think he’ll make it no further than 75.

Williams loves kebabs and I think he could kick the bucket in his early 60s.

Morbid OP btw.


rofl

Re: How many years have the Big 3 got left?

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

Pink Ball wrote:O’Sullivan has a healthy lifestyle and I think he could live to 85+.

Higgins hasn’t aged well, and I wonder if the Belfast incident was indicative of his lifestyle. I think he’ll make it no further than 75.

Williams loves kebabs and I think he could kick the bucket in his early 60s.

Morbid OP btw.


One of them will die while still in the Top 16.