cubby
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Post by cubby on Nov 24, 2021 8:15:47 GMT
Snooker chat commence!
So self appointed ambassador to the gentleman's cue sport Shaun Murphy has struck out against amateurs being allowed in tournaments after being knocked out by one in the first round of the UK Championship.
Sour grapes? This is normally what I'd expect Ronnie to say and Murphy to respond by towing the company line and say how great it is for the sport.
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Post by Dougs on Nov 24, 2021 8:22:41 GMT
Definitely sounds like sour grapes. He should be asking himself how it happened, if he's that much of a professional.
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Youthist
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Post by Youthist on Nov 24, 2021 8:26:44 GMT
I think he has gone about it in the wrong way but his point is a good one. The guy was probably smacking at anything and it didn’t matter win or lose and he just had one of those games where everything went in. Murphy is correct about the stress and pressures between those two sides of the coins IMO.
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Nov 24, 2021 8:39:30 GMT
Mark Williams has made a similar point a few weeks back
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Solid-SCB-
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Post by Solid-SCB- on Nov 24, 2021 8:46:03 GMT
They do the same thing on the darts tour and I've never heard any whining about it. Murphy's always seemed a bit backhanded on the quiet. Get the feeling a few of these older players have finally got the full time tour they never had in their pomp and are desperate to cling on to their golden goose for a few more years.
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Post by Vandelay on Nov 24, 2021 9:01:14 GMT
Definitely sounds like sour grapes. He should be asking himself how it happened, if he's that much of a professional. From a position of having not seen the match or heard anything beyond what I've read here, I would guess he didn't put much effort in for preparing for the game, came out expecting to walk it and then got a shock when it turned out the amateur was actually quite good. The annoyance is probably mostly embarrassment that he actually got beaten by a non-professional. Having said that, I expect the argument around this is slightly more nuanced than just him being bitter and it is probably an opinion he would hold without the defeat. I can sort of understand the idea that someone who isn't relying on this to feed themselves and their family can play in a more cavalier manner that might unsettle the professional. It is likely a bigger concern for someone at the much lower end of the rankings than Murphy and in their position I could see some legitimacy to it. Then again, if you were professional, you should be preparing for that kind of style and be able to shut it down. I would imagine grinding the play down and forcing them into a more tactical game would show any amateur up. I expect Murphy played to finish it all off quickly, which is probably not the best approach (again, said from the point of view of having no knowledge of how the actual game played out). |
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Solid-SCB-
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Post by Solid-SCB- on Nov 24, 2021 9:04:24 GMT
He earned £200,000 for finishing 2nd in this year's World Championship alone. If he's struggling to feed his family he should probably think about looking at himself and what he's doing wrong rather than a young lad grabbing an opportunity with both hands.
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Post by andytheaverage on Nov 24, 2021 10:50:59 GMT
Murphy comes across as a bit of an arse. I hate the lack of respect to someone who just beat him, and the argument about pressure is a daft one too. The guy fluffed the blue when 5-1 up and it ended up going to 5-5, there is no way that he wasn't feeling the pressure playing against a former world champion on the TV in a major tournament and with prize money available. If Murphy can't handle that pressure then he probably wasn't going to do very well against a better player.
If the amateurs got stuffed every time they played a professional then maybe there would be a good argument to exclude them, but they win enough to make it interesting. Maybe the top seeded players should get a bye into the second round, or change the format to what Williams suggests and limit how many tournaments an amateur can enter, but I like the fact that some tournaments include players you haven't heard of whereas others are only for the elite.
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Post by suicida on Nov 24, 2021 10:59:03 GMT
Murphy has always been an arse. Maybe he should git gud and beat the amateurs and stop trying to be gatekeeper over who is allowed to play in tournaments.
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robthehermit
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Post by robthehermit on Nov 24, 2021 11:02:04 GMT
He probably senses that Ronnie is going to actually make good on his promise to retire and is just stepping up to fill the whinging twat role.
If the powers that be didn't force players to talk to the press and just let them knock the balls about and fuck off home there wouldn't be any of this shit.
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Nov 24, 2021 13:37:10 GMT
The sport is crying out for younger players, there's a real dearth of young players at the top of the rankings. In the top 10 the youngest player is Kyren Wilson at 29. Yan Bintao at 21 is about the best chance we've had since Trump (who's now 32) for a young player to make some dents in the rankings. The old guys are keeping the cream to themselves and aren't being worried by the new players on the scene. I think the average age of the top 16 is about 37, average!
I imagine the organisers are desperately trying to think of ways to bring young players in but none of it's really worked that well yet.
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askew
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Post by askew on Nov 24, 2021 13:43:39 GMT
Sounds like Shaun needs to "git gud"
Edit: fucks sake. user suicida has made the joke already
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Nov 24, 2021 15:13:13 GMT
www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11748327/the-open-snooker-star-shaun-murphy-fails-to-qualify-at-county-louthFormer world snooker champion Shaun Murphy failed to advance to final qualifying for next month's Open Championship. Murphy, whose last tournament victory on the snooker table was 2018's Champions of Champions event, told Sky Sports News reporter Jamie Weir: "I might now just have to go as spectator! It's been a fabulous day, though." Regarding his 12-over-par score of 84, the 36-year-old added: "I think that's my highest break of the season! "But I came here with no genuine hopes of qualifying. That's one of my bucket list things gone!"
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askew
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Post by askew on Nov 24, 2021 15:42:50 GMT
Heh
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Nov 27, 2021 8:19:10 GMT
Neil Robertson thrashed by another amateur, just days after he backed Murphy in his complaints about them. Oh dear.
And then there's Mark Allen who's making very cagey statements about him maybe having to leave the tournament at a moments notice due to what his lawyers tell him. Something about money woes, I think, due to him going bankrupt a few months back.
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Post by Dougs on Nov 27, 2021 10:19:09 GMT
The sport's a mess.
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jono62
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Post by jono62 on Nov 27, 2021 11:10:14 GMT
Neil Robertson thrashed by another amateur, just days after he backed Murphy in his complaints about them. Oh dear. And then there's Mark Allen who's making very cagey statements about him maybe having to leave the tournament at a moments notice due to what his lawyers tell him. Something about money woes, I think, due to him going bankrupt a few months back. He went bankrupt just as he was going through a divorce. Funny that. What are they spending their money on?? |
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Nov 28, 2021 0:19:26 GMT
Watching on the beeb I'm having trouble telling the amateurs and professionals apart. Shouldn't the amateurs wear trackie bums to make it easier to spot them?
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 28, 2021 0:35:37 GMT
I don't get it. What's his point? Is he saying veteran players shouldn't be pit against younger players who might beat them? Is he saying snooker is an old gentlemen's sport that should include his generation but not anyone younger? Or that it should be a safe place for veterans unbothered by outsiders? Or is snooker something that should only be played against each other by the same old names? Please tell me what I'm missing because I honestly don't get it.
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Lizard
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Post by Lizard on Nov 28, 2021 2:10:43 GMT
I get the double-dip argument, but other than that it just seems like sour grapes.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 28, 2021 2:19:46 GMT
I think that if you're relying on being really good at a sport to feed your family, you're going to start losing eventually. Which is the point that you should probably start looking for another job.
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cubby
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Post by cubby on Nov 28, 2021 21:10:53 GMT
And now he's commentating. Should he even be in the building with these professional commentators here who have livelihoods at stake?
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Post by suicida on Nov 28, 2021 23:57:44 GMT
This part of the quote from Murphy stuck in my head:
Who knows what pressure the amateur player is under, particularly a young player from somewhere like China, seeing their potential future career and earnings slipping away from them if they drop out of the rankings.
The more I think about Murphy and Robertson's attitude here the more annoyed I get. The entitlement and gatekeeping. Fuck them.
Speaking of snooker players who are pricks, anyone seen what Peter Ebdon is up to these days? He's a full on new age vegan, antivax conspiracy theory spouting nutjob. Look him up on Twitter.
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Lukus
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Post by Lukus on Nov 29, 2021 0:49:02 GMT
Yeah I was thinking about this earlier. Surely as a pro you should be delighted if you draw an amateur in the tournament. You're the experienced player, you should really have a big advantage. The 'no pressure' advantage is bullshit. And if the amateur goes on to win money in the tournament, then technically they've become a pro. It really just seems like sour grapes.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 29, 2021 2:37:47 GMT
To be fair, I think a lot of professional sportspeople have this, where they've spent the majority of their early working lives doing something that has a time limit on it. And the adjustment to being a normal person might be difficult, owing to potential lack of education/work experience.
I guess the difference is that other famous sportspeople might have thousands (or millions!) of dollars to fall back on after retirement, which I am guessing is not the case for snooker professionals.
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Solid-SCB-
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Post by Solid-SCB- on Nov 29, 2021 7:53:30 GMT
Murphy's earned over £4million in his career, before endorsements. Again, if he's thrown money many of us won't earn in our lifetime down the swanny and being knocked out of one tournament early puts him in a financial mess then he can only blame himself.
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Post by Dougs on Nov 29, 2021 7:55:05 GMT
Exactly. Also agree re pressure for amateurs. Surely they're all in the same boat?
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 29, 2021 8:00:18 GMT
Fair enough, I didn't really know how lucrative the sport was.
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Post by Vandelay on Nov 29, 2021 11:24:12 GMT
As I mentioned earlier, I can potentially see some legitimacy for the argument for those that are outside of the top 64 (or maybe even 32) and never has reached those levels. I can't imagine those are earning much at all, besides some sponsorship and maybe some prize money from smaller tournaments. They also likely are going to be similar skill level as amateurs and may actually lose to them (although, they should be questioning if they are in the right profession if that is the case).
I don't think I would agree with the argument, but I could at least understand where it was coming from.
For someone like Murphy, who is clearly done quite nicely out of the sport, it really shouldn't be a valid complaint. It is even more ridiculous that someone like that is actually losing to amateurs. I can't really see that happening under any other circumstances besides not taking the match seriously, particularly in very skill based game like snooker, or the natural skill of the amateur was so good that they should be professional.
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Post by stacks on Nov 29, 2021 21:32:35 GMT
I fucking hate Shaun Murphy but think Joe Perry is quality. Breath of fresh air in the commentary box is ol' gentleman.
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