ON THE ROAD… Brendan Dolan
There is no long term plan apparently.
He hasn’t got a five or ten year goal he says. Ambitions are said to be practical. He tells you that he thinks of things on a short term basis. That all that matters is how he performs year to year.
Yet, there are snippets of conversation where perhaps his subconscious takes over.
Where a deep ambition and belief come to the surface to give a glimpse of a very definite path being trodden. A path that has already produced a remarkable journey and promises to provide many more tremendous feats and achievements.
And of course while there is a denial of long term goals the reality is that Brendan Dolan, arguably Ireland’s finest ever dart player, has been evolving and improving his game for 35 years.
And to think it all started in a garage in Carrontreemall, a small townland outside Belcoo. Thud. Thud. Thud. The darts hitting the board. Thud, thud thud. Time after time after time.
He was only five years old.
The dart board was placed on the floor and he threw for hours. For five years he practised in the garage before he made the step up to throw darts in the house. There he could take on his elder brothers, Mickey and John Joe. They were eight and nine years older and the question is asked of Brendan if they ever let him win;
“No, they would never go easy on me but after a few years they had no choice in whether I beat them or not. I practiced and played so much that I could do anything on that board in the house.”
By the time he was 13 he was playing in competitions on Saturday afternoons. As he explains he was ‘chaperoned’ by big brother John Joe.
“Mum and Dad were not too keen on me playing in pubs at night but they didn’t mind Saturday afternoons so much.”
A few years later he was playing in local leagues and developing into one of the best players in the county. It was the mid 80’s and darts on the TV was full of characters.
Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Jocky Wilson were the three giants of the sport. Jocky was Brendan’s favourite and he got the chance to play him in an exhibition in Belleek. Brendan won. He was 16.
“I remember watching the darts on the TV and thinking ‘I could do that’ but at the same time I don’t know if I ever really believed that it could happen.”
By the time the 20th century was dawning Brendan was easily the best local player and he started to enter competitions with the big boys. He played Eric Bristow in a competition in Las Vegas and beat him and took another few big scalps along the way.
Phil Taylor put him to the sword in consecutive years in Dublin but Taylor, the greatest ever, had some nice things to say about the potential he saw in the young Irish thrower.
“Yeah, I mean I was playing the big players and was getting the odd win. But I still didn’t really think that there was a living to be made there. It was more to be able say that I had played against the best,” Dolan explains.
But he kept improving. He kept getting that little bit better. Year on year. It was a struggle managing a darts career that was going places but at a slow pace with the need to work. By 2011 he was close to making the break through. So close in fact that he felt it was a case of now or never.
“I was very close to quitting in 2011. In terms of trying to make it as a professional it was getting very hard. Scratching out wins here and there and trying to make enough money to allow me to keep competing was difficult.”
He didn’t know it but he was falling out of love with the game. But it wouldn’t be for long.
At the 2011 World Grand Prix in Dublin he was to have the week of his darting life. Three wins saw him take on James Wade in the semi final. The competition was played on a double start format meaning you had to hit a double to start your scoring in the leg. No-one had ever done a nine darter under this format on TV.
Dolan made history by doing just that. He beat Wade for good measure before losing to Taylor in the final six sets to three.
“It changed my life. It gave me a few years of financial security so I knew that I could play for the next years and not have to worry too much. As a result my darts improved. I was playing the game for the game itself. The pressure that was there was gone, I could just play. I was more relaxed and my game really improved,” Dolan revealed.
Since then he has broke into the top 16 in the world. Now ranked 13 he has also won two tour events this year. The steady progress is still being made.
“I just want to keep improving, keep getting better. I know I am mentally stronger than I was a few years ago and I just want to keep working at the game.”
At the weekend he put his toe to the oche at the World Darts Championship and sailed into the second round with a three nil win over Colin Osborne.
So far he has never got past the second round at the World Championships so you ask would he be happy with just getting to the third round, with more steady improvement? The mask slips and the dreamer is revealed.
“No, I’m entering a competition and I want to win it. I want to win the World Championships.”
And you get the impression that this is not just a short term goal but also one that might be long term as well. And in the years to come you can see it becoming a reality.
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