Keane Barry admits that his form back in 2023/24 was "just no good, plain and simple" and puts his positive start to the 2026 season down, in part, to a new fitness regime.
The 23-year-old Meathman was in danger of losing his professional card at the end of 2025 but rallied to secure his tour status and is currently ranked 56 on the PDC's order of merit.
Barry was a double world youth champion back in 2019/20 and reached the UK Open semi-finals in 2022 but struggled thereafter to make inroads after that, although he did qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts in 2024.
"Probably from 2023, 2024, they were terrible years to be fair: just no good. Plain and simple," Barry tells RTÉ Sport.
"I wasn't playing very well but I still managed to hang on and keep my tour card and things like that, so that's obviously a bonus.
"For my tour card, I was a bit in and out towards the end of the year. I needed to be in the World Championship and I left that until the last Pro Tour basically.
"I'd a good start this year so I don't think I'll be in that position again.
"No one wants to be in that position either. You're fighting hard for it. But again, I think it shows that I'm up for a fight and if I need to get down and dirty, I will."
"I think the back end of last year, the start of this year, I've found my game again and I'm playing really well and happy enough.
"I'm still not back exactly where I want to be, but I'm getting there a thousand times better than I was a couple of years ago."
He got to the last four of Players Championship 7 and the last 16 in Monday's event 15, while he's also picked up victories over Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting and Michael Smith this year.
So what does the Duleek dartist put it down to? Some of it, at least, is down to working on his fitness.
"I've lost a bit of weight from Christmas time," says Barry, who has represented Ireland at the World Cup of Darts for the last three years.
"It definitely helped me. In the mornings I go for a run, not every day.
"I feel really refreshed going into the day. I'm not sluggish.
"I'm up for it. I think that all does play a big part, once you feel a lot more energy.
"I'm not winning two or three games and then I'm absolutely wrecked. Now I'm grand, I could play another ten games if I wanted to 'cos I have a lot more energy, I feel better in myself.
"I wasn't really into the whole gym and running and all that craic.
"One day I just said enough of this. I had to do something different.
"There will be a time when you say enough is enough. You need to eat a bit better. It's only small changes you make.
"It's not like changing your whole life around. For me I think it's really massively helped in the grand scheme of things.
"It's in such a short space of time as well. I've only been doing it the last three or four months and it's made such a big difference already.
"If I can just keep doing what I'm doing and keep feeling better then happy days."
There's been a huge rise in the popularity of the darts since the emergence of Luke Littler in 2024, with the 19-year-old since winning the last two World Championship titles.
Beau Greaves, two weeks ago, became the first woman to win a ranking title and it only bodes well for the sport.
Alongside this has been the increase in standards as youth academies thrive across the world.
In January three more Irish players joined the PDC's Pro Tour with Niall Culleton, Stephen Rosney and Shane McGuirk joining Barry, Willie O'Connor, Brendan Dolan, Mickey Mansell, Daryl Gurney and Josh Rock on the circuit, while Steve Lennon, who lost his card at the end of the season, gets regular invites to the floor tournaments.
Barry says: "Steve, Shane and Niall, they've done brilliant. They were good enough to be on the Tour last year, two, three years ago, but you just don't always get that bit of a break.
"Overall, Irish darts is in a great spot. Obviously, the youths coming through, there's a great standard, and it's just a matter of keeping it going.
"The more popular the sport gets... just keep the youth academies going, keep the tournaments going, and try and get as much people playing as possible.
"I think there's seven or eight of us on the Tour. There could be 15 or 16 of us now in the next couple of years."
