The Perfect Player 2009: Potting

As explained here, over the next few weeks I shall be attempting to identify the ‘Perfect Player’ from the 2009 crop and today I discuss who I believe to be the most talented potters in the game today…

When the BBC first came up with their list back in 2000, the assembled panel of experts went for Mark Williams and remembering how good his single-ball potting was at his very peak it is hard to argue with that decision. Nine years on however Mark is not quite the player he once was and while on his day he can still float the long ones in and make it look ridiculously easy in the process, the consistency is not so apparent.

So who are the other stand out candidates? Immediately when I considered this post there were three names that came to my mind, the first being world number 9 Neil Robertson who since bursting onto the scene earlier on this decade has shown that very little is safe while he is at the table. Since those early days it is fair to say that his all-round game has matured significantly, but while this has helped him to the three ranking event titles that have come his way (proving wrong the critics who said that he was not ready), I still feel that the Neil’s greatest strength is his thrilling potting game.

It is a similar story for the other two players in my thinking, Mark Allen and Jamie Cope who are both right up there with Neil in the potting department for me. While their all-round games might not quite be as strong, understandably so given Neil’s age and greater experience, both the ‘Pistol’ and the ‘Shotgun’ are incredible single-ball potters and are not afraid to go for their shots.

Younger still is Bristol’s Judd Trump and as anyone who has watched him in the qualifying rounds will tell you, some of the long pots that he can knock in with regularity are brilliant. He has not quite translated that confidence and form onto TV yet (even with that Grand Prix semi-final), and so cannot be ranked with the guys mentioned previously just yet, but when he does, I think he has the potential to be as good as anyone in this department.

One man certainly not lacking in confidence is Liang Wenbo, indeed when it comes to his shot selection it can sometimes work against him! When they go in however it is hard to argue with him too much and the scary thing with him is that more often than not they do. There is an argument that perhaps his potting looks a little better than it actually is due to the fact that he simply goes for so many, but he has done enough to at least be in the discussion as far as I am concerned.

With all these young pretenders being talked about, how about some of the older players? As John Higgins showed on the way to his third World Championship title this year, he can still make more of the longer pots than he misses, though it is easy to forget this when his all-round game is so formidable.

Ronnie O’Sullivan too is more than capable of potting his way out of trouble, though I do believe that his long-game is not at the level that it was a few seasons ago and that this was fairly evident even during his 2008 World Championship triumph. Still he cannot be discounted.

Stephen Hendry back in the 1990’s was as good a potter as I have ever seen, relentlessly knocking in that red from the break off and often making a century from it, but while he can still do this on occasion, he is no longer consistent enough to be up there with the other players mentioned and in truth has not been for the best part of a decade.

Finally the likes of Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby and Ding Junhui should also be given a mention here, indeed who can forget the way that Shaun potted his way to the 2005 World Championship. In all the years I have followed snooker I am not sure that I can remember a player knocking in the balls from distance as consistently as he did during that fortnight!

My verdict…

Of all of the categories this is in my opinion the toughest to come to a firm conclusion on, simply because of the sheer amount of brilliant potters in the game these days. If I had to make a choice I would probably just go with Robertson due to the fact that he has demonstrated his prowess for a number of seasons now and has shown greater consistency, but I think it is possibly to put forward a valid argument for quite a few players…