"I would relish it and I would be a brilliant player coming out the back of it" - Premier League Darts suddenly a realistic goal for Damon Heta

Damon Heta has slowly but surely been making a move up the PDC Order of Merit over recent years. At the time of writing, the Australian is currently sitting 9th in the world.

Whilst a big, breakthrough TV title still eludes 'The Heat', his consistency even has Heta on the verge of a top 4 place in the provisional rankings for the end of the season. If that were to come to fruition, Heta would earn himself a Premier League Darts debut. "Very unexpected," he admits in conversation with Online Darts. "I never had goals like that. I've always had short term goals to be honest, top 64, then top 32, I've never put it out there and said I'm going to be world number one. Maybe I should, but I don't know how the elite minds work."

Although Heta has claimed victory at the World Cup of Darts with Simon Whitlock for Australia, the Brisbane Darts Masters on the World Series in 2019 and the Gibraltar Darts Trophy on the European Tour in 2022, a TV ranking major hasn't yet come to fruition. With a semi-final at the UK Open and quarter-finals at the Grand Slam of Darts, Players Championship Finals and the World Matchplay however, the breakthrough doesn't seem too far away for the 37-year-old.

"Where I'm at is absolutely massive. So I'm just taking it how it comes, but yeah, I would love to be keeping around those top echelons," Heta continues, although having uprooted his life to chase a darting dream on the other side of the world, he already has an end plan in mind. "When I do go back to Australia, which that's always been the plan to retire, I don't know. I've not planned that far ahead to be fair but, that's always been the end plan, just to come back."

As mentioned though, the Premier League Darts is looking more and more like a realistic goal which would be a another feather in the cap of Heta's development. "I've never put it out there saying I want Premier League. It's never been my main focus because I think, once you've done all the hard work, you'll get picked on your merits of doing all the right things anyway," he explains. "But as a dart player, playing the top guys week in week out, you are going to be a much better player regardless. I would relish it to the max and I think I would be a brilliant player coming out the back end of it."