"I had already decided I was finished" - Brendan Dolan has made a radical decision about not playing tournament again

With the 2026 PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace on the horizon, Brendan Dolan faces a crucial tournament that could still salvage his underwhelming season. The Northern Irishman, long one of the most stable and underrated forces on the PDC circuit, looks back in a candid interview on a year in which he mostly battled himself. From technical doubt to mental pressure: 2025 was a quest for balance, calm, and confidence for Dolan.

“I’ve had a very poor year so far,” Dolan says bluntly to Tungsten Tales. “I could make it into a great year with two good tournaments and that’s all it will take to turn it all around.”

Dolan is known as one of the most consistent floor players of the past 10 to 15 years. He rarely lets his level drop for long, but this year everything was different. The mental side in particular proved a stumbling block. “I was struggling with the mental side of the game,” he admits. “Not mental issues as such – just how I mentally approach games and legs. I was finding myself mentally weak.”

That overthinking spiralled into technical doubt. Dolan even began questioning the way he threw the dart. “I started thinking about my throw… and then I realised I throw darts in different ways,” he says. “One is fluent and smoother, and one just stops and then throws. I never realised it until the lads told me.”

When he tried to force one unified technique, the result was a disaster. “I decided I’d throw one way all the time – and I had the three worst games in a row I’ve ever had,” he reveals. “That’s when I said: right, that’s it, I’m not breaking down my throw anymore.”

On top of that, a lingering injury from the previous year brought even more pressure. “I knew I had to make up for that time at the start of this year, so I pressurised myself too much,” he says. “I thought I needed to win straight away… but looking back, I didn’t. I just needed to do better than I did.”

In search of clarity, Dolan sought help from a sports psychologist – something he had avoided for most of his career. “I never thought they knew enough about darts to help a dart player,” he says. “But I realised it’s general – wanting to win, controlling emotions, using triggers, positive mental attitude. All sports people use the same.”

The sessions have simplified everything for him. “It’s just the three darts you’re throwing at the minute that you can alter or change,” Dolan explains. “You can’t do anything about what’s already gone… Just think about throwing darts. Break it down to the simplest game that it is – it’s just a matter of throwing tungsten at a board.”

For a player who had spent months overthinking every detail, that simplicity has been transformative.

This year was the first time since his debut that Dolan was not part of the Northern Ireland World Cup team. That absence came as Daryl Gurney and Josh Rock went on to win the trophy. “It was absolutely tremendous,” Dolan says. “You just knew the passion in the two of them.”

But for him, the World Cup journey is over. “I had already decided I was finished,” he states. “I tried too hard for so long… it even affected other tournaments. Even if I won the World Championships and was top of the pecking order, I would not be playing.”

A firm stance, but one he stands by. “In that tournament I completely froze under the pressure I put on myself,” he explains. “Everything else in darts is for me… I just play darts.”

Talk turns naturally to Josh Rock – the 24-year-old phenomenon shaking up the PDC. Dolan sees no limit to his potential. “He’s got time on his side and so much drive and enthusiasm,” he says. “I can only see him winning… he’ll definitely win TV titles and be a top-8 player for years.”

Rock’s rapid rise surprised the wider darting world, but not Dolan. “He seemed to get on a roll,” he explains. “At the start he didn’t get results, then he just started to get the wins… from then on he was good.”

What stands out most is Rock’s growing versatility. “He was just a tops man, and now he’s a tops man and a double-16 man,” Dolan says. “Since the new darts, he’s pinning a lot more 180s. That helps, no getting away from it.”

For Dolan, everything now centres on the World Championship – a tournament that could reset his entire campaign. “It’s about letting things go and playing in the moment,” he says. “Just throw the darts.”