Ronnie O’Sullivan’s coach Steve Feeney explains their reunion ahead of World Championship at Crucible

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s coach Steve Feeney says the seven-time world champion’s game was “not where he wanted it to be” before they reunited.

O’Sullivan and Feeney first started working together in 2018 but drifted apart during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pair began working together again shortly before Christmas.

“We worked together from 2018-20, then there was the break with Covid and everything. I’ve grown as a coach, there’s more that I know and can deliver and I think Ronnie’s enjoying that too.

“He’s enjoying being introduced to shots that even he wouldn’t have thought about before. We’ve got to continue pushing boundaries. For him to win an eighth we’ve got to continue to improve.

“Some people think he can just walk away with it, but you’ve only got to look at the tour this season, there are far more accurate players than there used to be. He’s got to go and perform.

“In the last season he’s not had the results he would have liked, so I think this is timely, but there is a bit to do. His game was not where he wanted it to be.

“I also think he continued to be inspired by Mark [Williams] continuing to get good results.”

Feeney says O’Sullivan will have to focus and work hard to win another world title as he prepares to come up against the world’s best players.

“Ronnie takes it in his own stride,” he said. “Some people say he’ll win when he wants, maybe that’s right, but I think he focuses when he wants.

“He eases off the pedal when he needs to and can put it down again when he needs to concentrate.

“If it happens this year then great, if it doesn’t then I’d like to think we’ll be in a better position next year to do it.

‘As much as Ronnie would like to keep everything calm and in balance in his life and the way snooker affects his life, you can tell there’s also that inner desire to get the eighth.

“But he knows he’s got to work for it, people think he can just turn up and take the title, but he’s got to work for it.”

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