Joe Perry warns high-flying Neil Robertson not to fall into trap

Neil Robertson has had a good season so far, but coach Joe Perry is urging him not to get too comfortable near the top of the rankings.

The Thunder from Down Under landed the big-money Saudi Arabia Masters title in August, beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final, which sees him sitting pretty at number three in the world and top of the one-year ranking list.

It is a brilliant turnaround for the 43-year-old who missed out on the World Championship in 2024 and slipped out of the top 20 as a result.

He has made changes to the team around him, including bringing in long-time friend and practice partner Perry as a coach and mentor, which appears to have helped with his dramatic rise back up the rankings.

Two-time ranking event winner Perry says there is no technical coaching required for one of the greatest cueists ever, but there is work to do to keep Robertson hungry and motivated after landing the £500,000 top prize in Jeddah.

‘He is easy to work with,’ Perry told Metro. ‘The good thing about working with Neil is there’s nothing we need to do technically. He’s got control of all that side of it.

‘Initially it was easy because he was just so keen to get back to where he feels he should be and where we all know he should be.

‘But now the challenge really is just maintaining that because he’s had such a good run of form that he’s so high up in the rankings again and secure for so long it’s just keeping him hungry and keeping that level he was at when he was trying to get back to where he wanted to be. It’s just pushing on and trying to keep it going.’

Robertson recognised that as a possible issue himself and says Perry has been cracking the whip to keep him in check.

‘Absolutely. He’s been really on that to make sure that the events that I’m playing in are motivated and prepared well,’ he said. ‘Winning Saudi so early in the season, I think a lot of people could be excused of just free-rolling a little bit.

‘There is a sense of that because, you’re already secure for all the upcoming events, there’s no complications in terms of rankings. But it’s been really good. The motivation is there. You can see it in the performances this season. I’ve had a great season.’

Another concern Perry has had is Robertson not playing in every event, but the Gentleman admits that he does not know what it’s like to go deep in tournaments as regularly as a man who has been to 39 ranking finals.

‘He has pulled out of a couple of events, which I’m not overly happy about because it was something I…well, I was never in a position to be able to do, to be honest,’ said Perry.

‘It’s not something I encourage, but I don’t know what it’s like to win events continuously, and I don’t know what that actually takes out of you, to do it on a regular basis.

‘So hopefully he knows what he’s doing and he’s going to keep his form sharp because the back end of the season is massive for guys at the top. We’ve got some huge events, all culminating at the World Championship. It’s huge.’

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Robertson has pulled out of the Wuhan Open, Northern Ireland Open and Scottish Open this season, but says all three were out of his hands due to illness, injury and heading back to his home country to collect his Order of Australia award (OAM) award.

‘The way it’s worked out, it looks like I’ve withdrawn to try and peak for other events, but I went to Australia, so I couldn’t play in Wuhan,’ he explained.

‘I arrived back the day before I was playing the English Open, so that was a wipe out as well. Then we went to Xi’an and a few people got really ill and I was one of them, so I had to withdraw from Northern Ireland. That was never the intention because that’s the only Home Nations I ever won, so I was keen to go there.

‘Then I got an injury through golf, which I’m still managing now, in my sacroiliac joint and I missed Scotland.’

He may have picked up an injury on the course, but Robertson was not impressed by the suggestion he might have to give up golf.

‘No! I’ll tell you what, if I had to stop playing golf, I would be absolutely sick,’ he said. ‘It’s just something where I just need to keep seeing the physio.

‘I do really want that to improve because, playing, bending up and down all the time. Playing a match that could go for quite a few hours, I haven’t really tested that yet.’

Next up for Robertson is a brilliant first round game at the Masters against O’Sullivan on Wednesday night at Alexandra Palace.

‘Looking forward to it,’ said Perry. ‘How can you not? Apart from maybe a World final or something, that’s probably the most raucous, best atmosphere you can ever have as a professional snooker player, Ronnie at the Masters.’

Will cricket fan Robertson look to wind up the London crowd over the Ashes as he did at the UK Championship in a memorable semi-final walk-on?

‘Well, hopefully not, because it didn’t go too well last time, did it?’ Perry said of the Aussie’s loss to Judd Trump in York.

‘Hopefully we can forget about the cricket.’

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