WHEN Antrim darts star Neil Duff was crowned WDF World Champion back in April 2022, Offaly's Ronan McDonagh wasn't even playing darts.
Disillusioned by a chronic bout of Dartitis, Ronan, who had shown signs of promising career as a youth, had taken a break from the game.
Thanks to the help and encouragement of the likes of Offaly and Ireland captain, Stephen Rosney, Ronan has returned to form on the oche and is now starting to produce on his promise again.
It's why the 2024 INDO Inter Counties B champion found himself slugging it out with the experienced Duff in the Modus Super Series finals night last Saturday night.
While Duff claimed the bragging rights with a 4-3 in that game, it was McDonagh who ultimately prevailed as he qualified for the Modus semi-finals as his group winner.
He unfortunately failed to make it past the last four, but having the made the final on his only other time competing at Modus, he has certainly impressed.
Speaking to Darts In Ireland, the enormity of taking on players like Duff at competitions like Modus hasn't been lost on Ronan.
He said: "It's mad to think that when Duff was winning his world championship, I wasn't even playing darts at the time.
"It shows how far I've come on that I'm playing at these competitions against players like him and I'm very happy with how I performed at Modus throughout last week.
"I had trouble with my doubles early in the week but once I got a bit of confidence up I was fine again.
"I just kept to my usual routine and tried not to let the missed doubles get to me as I know I can hit them too and thankfully that's what I started to do."
Ronan says he hopes to now bring his form at Modus into domestic competitions in Ireland, as he looks to get up the INDO rankings and be in contention for future Ireland teams.
He has a bit of work to do after missing three of the first four rankings events in the new INDO season, but he's confident he can still make up for lost time.
Ronan said: "I think I'm good enough to be in the top 15 in Ireland for sure, which would put me in the frame for the Ireland team for the Island Nations at least.
"I know I've missed the first few ranking events but I'm going to concentrate on the rest of the INDO events this year and try to climb up that ranking table.
"It's not easy as you never know who you will get in the draw. You could be drawn to play one of the best players in the country in the first round and be under pressure straight away."
Pressure is not something that gets to McDonagh much these days as he gets more accustomed to winning big and crucial games.
His two appearances at the Modus Super Series have come from winning the ADC Ireland regional finals and he says he hopes to add more titles to his growing list of achievements.
In his last ADC Ireland regional final, McDonagh beat his good pal Stephen Rosney, despite the Republic of Ireland captain averaging up to 100 against him in that game.
However, Ronan is in no doubt just how important Rosney has been to his own improvement.
He said: "Stephen is playing absolutely brilliant darts and I think he is the number one player in Ireland right now.
"He's not just a good player but also a really nice guy who has helped me a lot. He used to go out of his way to encourage me and tell me that if I got the Dartitis under control I would be a serious threat.
"That gave me a lot of confidence and now I'm thankfully starting to show it too."
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