SUCCESS in darts often only comes through a lot of hard graft.
It's such hard work which Dublin's Youth Officer, Ross O'Brien, credits with the county's team reaching the holy grail by being crowned the INDO Inter Counties Youths champions in Galway on Sunday.
The Dublin team showed tremendous grit and composure to come from 2-0 down in the final to four-in-a-row chasing Carlow to come out 3-2 victors and lift the trophy.
An emotional Ross described their success as something special for darts in Dublin.
He told Darts In Ireland: "It's an amazing time at the minute for Dublin youth darts.
"It's an absolute honour to come down here and take the title.
"Just 12 months on from when we finished in the last 16, we felt we could go a bit further this time but to win it is absolutely special."
Ross gave special praise to the Dublin team, made up of captain Scott Doyle, Brodie Moran, Coby Burke, Luke Maher, Ollie McArdle and Luke Divilly, for how they handled themselves throughout the competition.
Not only did they come from 2-0 down in the final against Carlow, but they did the same against a very strong Meath team in their semi-final.
In the decider against a Carlow team who had won the previous three Youth Inter Counties, Dublin found themselves really up against it early on.
After Carlow youth stalwart Luke Dooley won the opening game in a last leg decider by taking out a 96 finish with two double 19s, it looked like they were on their way to adding another title to their list.
That appeared to be even more on the cards when World Cup pairs winner Jack Courtney put in a sensational performance to take down Dublin captain Scott Doyle in the second game.
However, Dublin dug in impressively as Ollie McArdle survived a match dart against World Girls Master champion Rebecca Allen to get his team on the board.
After Dublin's Luke Divilly then edged out Carlow's Charlie Power, it was left up to his team-mate Brodie Moran - the calmest man in the room - to win the title for Dublin on double 16.
Ross added: "We were on the heavy side of the draw but we knew we needed to get to the final to give ourselves a shot as a final is a lottery, it can be anybodys.
"Our lads, like the semi final, they were 2-0 down and they just gritted in and dug in and done the job.
"It's testament to the players and testament to their coaching staff. Nobody panicked. We've Glen Spearing as the A team coach for a reason."
With four teams in total competing for the Dublin youths over the weekend, Ross said it's only going to get stronger in the capital.
He said: "We're building all our youth teams to give the players their chances and if they take, they take them.
"Today we are celebrating winning the Inter Counties and it is fantastic."
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