Post a reply

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Witz78

You really just need to take a subjective look at each players career to date and its merits and make a decision whether they are

(a) An underachiever, an overachiever or have fulfilled their potential as expected to date
(b) Overhyped, Underhyped or evoke pretty neutral opinions

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Smart

I said Joe Davis simply because he won all those world champs but against what sort of opposition....? You cant tell me that snooker was / is better than snooker nowadays and yet he is listed as an all time great / legend. To me he is over-rated. Expects historians to come back at me !! <ok> :wave:

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Cannonball

Absolute nonsense. Murphy's technique is flagged up by the top pros (as well as Stephen Lee's) as one of the best and one to copy. There is nothing better than potting someone off the table, it creates incredible pressure on your opponent. as ROS pointed out about Judd.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Wildey

Trumpster wrote:Absolute nonsense. Murphy's technique is flagged up by the top pros (as well as Stephen Lee's) as one of the best and one to copy. There is nothing better than potting someone off the table, it creates incredible pressure on your opponent. as ROS pointed out about Judd.

you got to back that up with Major titles.

Murphy not producing.

its been 8 years since he won the World and 4 years since he won the UK.

the only other Ranking wins came in the Malta Cup in 2007 and the PTC Grand Final in 2011.

so no way with the talent he has hes overrated but boy ohhh boy if ever there was a player that's under achieved its Murphy.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Cannonball

Biggest overachiever and most overrated player has to be Dennis Taylor; dreadful technique, but a former WC nonetheless. Biggest underachiever has to be Jimmy; 3 world titles should have been collected.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Cannonball

Wild WC wrote:
Trumpster wrote:Absolute nonsense. Murphy's technique is flagged up by the top pros (as well as Stephen Lee's) as one of the best and one to copy. There is nothing better than potting someone off the table, it creates incredible pressure on your opponent. as ROS pointed out about Judd.

you got to back that up with Major titles.

Murphy not producing.

its been 8 years since he won the World and 4 years since he won the UK.

the only other Ranking wins came in the Malta Cup in 2007 and the PTC Grand Final in 2011.

so no way with the talent he has hes overrated but boy ohhh boy if ever there was a player that's under achieved its Murphy.


Murphy sat on his laurels, got bigger and maybe the hunger has faded? Maybe folk do know how to play him now, as Judd is also finding out. Murphy should have won more, but snooker is very competitive, and titles don't come easy. Lean and mean is the way forward; a lot of players get older, put on the pounds and lose it. Davis has avoided this.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Roland

It's got nothing to do with his weight. He hasn't won more because he's a one trick pony, he's great at potting balls because he's got the most solid cue action out there but there's more to snooker than potting balls.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Casey

Sonny wrote:It's got nothing to do with his weight. He hasn't won more because he's a one trick pony, he's great at potting balls because he's got the most solid cue action out there but there's more to snooker than potting balls.


His cue action does not hold up great under pressure. I think he is pretty close to a big career slide so don't be surprised to see him starting to fall down the rankings over the next 2 years.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Roland

His cue action is fine under pressure, so long as he doesn't require a delicate touch shot (e.g. the blue in the UK final).

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Dragonfly

I may have mentioned before but I really do believe Alex Higgins was overrated. I know plenty of people disagree of course. Higgins had dreadful technique, awful positional play. He did have plenty of courage, was determined and was a bit of a scrapper really. He had good tactical know how, and on occasion capable of flashes of brilliance.

The brilliance was few and far between though. Dogged by inconsistency, he's actual record in tournaments wasn't great. I'm not saying he was a poor player but I am bemused when people say he was one of the best of all time.

I understand what he did for the game, he was exciting on his good days, but one of the best ever? No!

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Iranu

Dragonfly wrote:I may have mentioned before but I really do believe Alex Higgins was overrated. I know plenty of people disagree of course. Higgins had dreadful technique, awful positional play. He did have plenty of courage, was determined and was a bit of a scrapper really. He had good tactical know how, and on occasion capable of flashes of brilliance.

The brilliance was few and far between though. Dogged by inconsistency, he's actual record in tournaments wasn't great. I'm not saying he was a poor player but I am bemused when people say he was one of the best of all time.

I understand what he did for the game, he was exciting on his good days, but one of the best ever? No!

I mean I guess it depends how you define ‘one of the best ever’.

He’s one of only 13 multiple World Champions in nearly 100 years of the tournament’s history, one of 11 Triple Crown winners. Out of every single person to try their hand at being a snooker professional.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby LDS

Giving any answer here will likely be hugely controversial, and I disagree with pretty much everyone else's picks for reasons others have chimed in with.

But, for me, this award will always be Paul Hunter's, someone who was mentioned earlier in the thread but overlooked as a candidate for the title.

People at the time really loved Hunter. Loved. He was the golden boy who could do no wrong. However, whenever I watched him play, he either lost or was pretty boring. I'm aware that, in my case, his physical appearance didn't add anything to the show, but I'm aware that for many, and I do mean many, it did.

He was no Jimmy or Higgins or O'Sullivan, nor was he a Davis or Hendry, and of the players of his generation I preferred to watch Stevens or Gray or Hann given the choice, both for playstyle and physical appearance!

But, wow, Hunter really was a lot of things to a lot of people and he did win some titles, just not the ones I took as much interest in. He never did that well at the Worlds, nor the UK, nor the Grand Prix, and yet he dominated both the Masters and the Welsh open, none of it made any sense at all.

How can you win 3 Masters titles in 4 years but only have one visit to the crucible go past the 2nd round in 8 attempts.

I don't think you could find any other player in any way comparable. And then there's the whole tragedy aspect to his career which results in those that loved him forever just saying "well, he probably would have at some point", which is quite possible, but also not at all obviously guaranteed. He could well have gone the way of Maguire or Stevens in terms of future career.

If ever there was a player where you really will struggle to find support for disliking them, as a player, it will be Hunter, like no other. Everyone else who's been mentioned you can easily find ready detractors, but if you really want to find a golden boy who probably wasn't, probably more fine silver, it would be Hunter IMO.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Womble

Holden Chinaski wrote:Lisowski.

I agree. All the talent in the world but zero bottle. <ok>

I still like to watch him play, though. :-)

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby SnookerFan

SnookerFan wrote:A lot of people are hyping Jack Lisowski, and he has potential. But there seems to be an attitude that he's the next Judd Trump, just because he's round about the same age and they know each other.



Holden Chinaski wrote:Lisowski.



Holden copying my answer from a decade ago, and acting like he has knowledge.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby SnookerFan

LDS wrote:Giving any answer here will likely be hugely controversial, and I disagree with pretty much everyone else's picks for reasons others have chimed in with.

But, for me, this award will always be Paul Hunter's, someone who was mentioned earlier in the thread but overlooked as a candidate for the title.

People at the time really loved Hunter. Loved. He was the golden boy who could do no wrong. However, whenever I watched him play, he either lost or was pretty boring. I'm aware that, in my case, his physical appearance didn't add anything to the show, but I'm aware that for many, and I do mean many, it did.

He was no Jimmy or Higgins or O'Sullivan, nor was he a Davis or Hendry, and of the players of his generation I preferred to watch Stevens or Gray or Hann given the choice, both for playstyle and physical appearance!

But, wow, Hunter really was a lot of things to a lot of people and he did win some titles, just not the ones I took as much interest in. He never did that well at the Worlds, nor the UK, nor the Grand Prix, and yet he dominated both the Masters and the Welsh open, none of it made any sense at all.

How can you win 3 Masters titles in 4 years but only have one visit to the crucible go past the 2nd round in 8 attempts.

I don't think you could find any other player in any way comparable. And then there's the whole tragedy aspect to his career which results in those that loved him forever just saying "well, he probably would have at some point", which is quite possible, but also not at all obviously guaranteed. He could well have gone the way of Maguire or Stevens in terms of future career.

If ever there was a player where you really will struggle to find support for disliking them, as a player, it will be Hunter, like no other. Everyone else who's been mentioned you can easily find ready detractors, but if you really want to find a golden boy who probably wasn't, probably more fine silver, it would be Hunter IMO.


He never did well at the Worlds? He was only one frame away from the final at one point.

He did win Three Masters titles. You might have heard of The Masters, some consider it a pretty big tournament.

He was only a week short of his 28th birthday when he died, and had cancer for a while prior to that. He had plenty of time to win more trophies.

He might be romanticised a bit, due to his death. But he was hardly some mug who never achieved anything.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby lhpirnie

Dragonfly wrote:I may have mentioned before but I really do believe Alex Higgins was overrated. I know plenty of people disagree of course. Higgins had dreadful technique, awful positional play. He did have plenty of courage, was determined and was a bit of a scrapper really. He had good tactical know how, and on occasion capable of flashes of brilliance.

The brilliance was few and far between though. Dogged by inconsistency, he's actual record in tournaments wasn't great. I'm not saying he was a poor player but I am bemused when people say he was one of the best of all time.

I understand what he did for the game, he was exciting on his good days, but one of the best ever? No!

I agree completely. I started out as a besotted Alex Higgins fan, but once I was playing snooker myself (in the mid-80's) that changed. Interestingly, most of the strong players in clubs I played against were also not terribly impressed by Higgins, having a much greater respect for Steve Davis.


Alex Higgins was a very successful player, with several major titles. But he was never the best player in the world, and apart from the purple patches his level was quite poor. We have to be suspicious of anyone who has the label "people's champion".

But as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good myth...

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby LDS

SnookerFan wrote:
LDS wrote:Giving any answer here will likely be hugely controversial, and I disagree with pretty much everyone else's picks for reasons others have chimed in with.

But, for me, this award will always be Paul Hunter's, someone who was mentioned earlier in the thread but overlooked as a candidate for the title.

People at the time really loved Hunter. Loved. He was the golden boy who could do no wrong. However, whenever I watched him play, he either lost or was pretty boring. I'm aware that, in my case, his physical appearance didn't add anything to the show, but I'm aware that for many, and I do mean many, it did.

He was no Jimmy or Higgins or O'Sullivan, nor was he a Davis or Hendry, and of the players of his generation I preferred to watch Stevens or Gray or Hann given the choice, both for playstyle and physical appearance!

But, wow, Hunter really was a lot of things to a lot of people and he did win some titles, just not the ones I took as much interest in. He never did that well at the Worlds, nor the UK, nor the Grand Prix, and yet he dominated both the Masters and the Welsh open, none of it made any sense at all.

How can you win 3 Masters titles in 4 years but only have one visit to the crucible go past the 2nd round in 8 attempts.

I don't think you could find any other player in any way comparable. And then there's the whole tragedy aspect to his career which results in those that loved him forever just saying "well, he probably would have at some point", which is quite possible, but also not at all obviously guaranteed. He could well have gone the way of Maguire or Stevens in terms of future career.

If ever there was a player where you really will struggle to find support for disliking them, as a player, it will be Hunter, like no other. Everyone else who's been mentioned you can easily find ready detractors, but if you really want to find a golden boy who probably wasn't, probably more fine silver, it would be Hunter IMO.


He never did well at the Worlds? He was only one frame away from the final at one point.

He did win Three Masters titles. You might have heard of The Masters, some consider it a pretty big tournament.

He was only a week short of his 28th birthday when he died, and had cancer for a while prior to that. He had plenty of time to win more trophies.

He might be romanticised a bit, due to his death. But he was hardly some mug who never achieved anything.


I know, I mentioned most of that in my post.

I'm not sure you grasp the concept of overrated.

Nowhere do you even consider the extent which Hunter was either overrated or underrated or about right rated, you kind of prove my point entirely by completely and totally refusing to say a single even mildly negative thing about him.

And yet you wish to field Lisowski as someone who's overrated?

Well, what do you mean he's overrated? All people say about him is that he's possibly one of the best players to never win a ranker and that surely he must one day. You watch any tv commentary and you can't go 3 frames without someone going on about how he'd be a great player if he'd just do this that or the other, to the point where everyone's fed up of hearing them repeat this every 3 frames.

So who exactly is overrating Lisowski?

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby SnookerFan

Pink Ball wrote:Aye, Luca has made me look a right mug. bucking Roy of the Rovers wouldn't have won the World Championship as dramatically.


To be fair, I don't know that he was that good at snooker.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby SnookerFan

LDS wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:
LDS wrote:Giving any answer here will likely be hugely controversial, and I disagree with pretty much everyone else's picks for reasons others have chimed in with.

But, for me, this award will always be Paul Hunter's, someone who was mentioned earlier in the thread but overlooked as a candidate for the title.

People at the time really loved Hunter. Loved. He was the golden boy who could do no wrong. However, whenever I watched him play, he either lost or was pretty boring. I'm aware that, in my case, his physical appearance didn't add anything to the show, but I'm aware that for many, and I do mean many, it did.

He was no Jimmy or Higgins or O'Sullivan, nor was he a Davis or Hendry, and of the players of his generation I preferred to watch Stevens or Gray or Hann given the choice, both for playstyle and physical appearance!

But, wow, Hunter really was a lot of things to a lot of people and he did win some titles, just not the ones I took as much interest in. He never did that well at the Worlds, nor the UK, nor the Grand Prix, and yet he dominated both the Masters and the Welsh open, none of it made any sense at all.

How can you win 3 Masters titles in 4 years but only have one visit to the crucible go past the 2nd round in 8 attempts.

I don't think you could find any other player in any way comparable. And then there's the whole tragedy aspect to his career which results in those that loved him forever just saying "well, he probably would have at some point", which is quite possible, but also not at all obviously guaranteed. He could well have gone the way of Maguire or Stevens in terms of future career.

If ever there was a player where you really will struggle to find support for disliking them, as a player, it will be Hunter, like no other. Everyone else who's been mentioned you can easily find ready detractors, but if you really want to find a golden boy who probably wasn't, probably more fine silver, it would be Hunter IMO.


He never did well at the Worlds? He was only one frame away from the final at one point.

He did win Three Masters titles. You might have heard of The Masters, some consider it a pretty big tournament.

He was only a week short of his 28th birthday when he died, and had cancer for a while prior to that. He had plenty of time to win more trophies.

He might be romanticised a bit, due to his death. But he was hardly some mug who never achieved anything.


I know, I mentioned most of that in my post.

I'm not sure you grasp the concept of overrated.

Nowhere do you even consider the extent which Hunter was either overrated or underrated or about right rated, you kind of prove my point entirely by completely and totally refusing to say a single even mildly negative thing about him.

And yet you wish to field Lisowski as someone who's overrated?

Well, what do you mean he's overrated? All people say about him is that he's possibly one of the best players to never win a ranker and that surely he must one day. You watch any tv commentary and you can't go 3 frames without someone going on about how he'd be a great player if he'd just do this that or the other, to the point where everyone's fed up of hearing them repeat this every 3 frames.

So who exactly is overrating Lisowski?


I did say that ten years ago.


At the moment, I don't think he's overrated. Most pundits describe him as a talented player who is yet to win a professional tournament. That's just accurate.

I can't really remember what I thought at the time. I seem to suggest some people were comparing him with Judd, which I didn't agree with.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby D4P

Part of Paul Hunter's lore and aura presumably stems from the fact that he won all 3 of Masters finals in deciders, and made a huge comeback (from trailing 6-2, 5-0, and 6-1) in each final. And it doesn't hurt that one of the finals was against Ronnie...

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Womble

Luca Brecel. He wins the World championship once and he is hailed as a superhero or something.

Let's see what happens next season before everyone gets too excited. <ok>

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby Holden Chinaski

Womble wrote:Luca Brecel. He wins the World championship once and he is hailed as a superhero or something.

Let's see what happens next season before everyone gets too excited. <ok>

He's the first player from mainland Europe to win it. As Judd Trump said, that is very impressive, especially because Luca never moved to the UK to practice with top players.

He was also the first player from mainland Europe to win a ranking event when he won the China Championship in 2017.

He is now 28 years old, and has already won 4 ranking titles including a World Championship.

Luca is already in the record books for being the youngest player ever to play at the World Championship, for being the first player from mainland Europe to win a ranking event and the first to win the Worlds, and for making the biggest comeback in Crucible history.

Jack Lisowski, for example, is 31 and has won buck all.

Re: Most overrated snooker player of all time

Postby mantorok

Holden Chinaski wrote:
Womble wrote:Luca Brecel. He wins the World championship once and he is hailed as a superhero or something.

Let's see what happens next season before everyone gets too excited. <ok>

He's the first player from mainland Europe to win it. As Judd Trump said, that is very impressive, especially because Luca never moved to the UK to practice with top players.

He was also the first player from mainland Europe to win a ranking event when he won the China Championship in 2017.

He is now 28 years old, and has already won 4 ranking titles including a World Championship.

Luca is already in the record books for being the youngest player ever to play at the World Championship, for being the first player from mainland Europe to win a ranking event and the first to win the Worlds, and for making the biggest comeback in Crucible history.

Jack Lisowski, for example, is 31 and has won buck all.


Hadn't he also never won a match at the WC before this too?