World Grand Prix darts ace says ‘I’ve been f***ing s***’ after £25k win | Other | Sport
Joe Cullen admitted that he has been “playing f***ing s***” this season and had been forced into a routine change before reaching the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix.
Cullen, a semi-finalist at least year’s only PDC double-start event, battled to a 3-2 victory over Michael van Gerwen’s conqueror Daryl Gurney after coming back from losing the first set.
The world No. 19 has had a disappointing year by his standards but returned to form in Leicester, with a tournament he seemingly has an affinity for. He banked at least £25,000 in the process and set up a quarter-final with Dimitri Van den Bergh.
The Yorkshireman candidly revealed that in an attempt to curb his struggles at the oche, he has looked at other sports for inspiration. The Rugby League megafan’s attempts appear to have paid off, at least at the Mattioli Arena, but prompted questions over why he hadn’t taken inspiration from elsewhere previously.
Cullen incredibly replied: “Because I’ve been playing f***ing s*** that’s why.
“I have been playing absolute f***ing s***. That’s why to be honest, I have had dips before in form in the past but it’s lasted a few weeks, this one has sort of carried itself on.
“I have been rubbish most of the year, I have had a few results here and there but it’s not what I am. I have set myself high standards, particularly over the last four or five years and I have dipped from those standards, but I want to get back to where I think I belong.”
The 35-year-old had not progressed beyond the last 16 in any of his last 13 darts ranking events, but took down 2017 champion Gurney and will feel that he has a chance of reaching the semi-finals against Van den Bergh.
He even namedropped Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in his press conference as examples of learning from others, explaining that the golf and tennis stars are among the greatest to ever pick up a club or racket, but still listen to outside advice.
“I’ve tried to go out of my comfort zone and do different things that I don’t think many darts players are doing,” Cullen added. “I’ve got the mindset that if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, there’s no problem.
“I’ve looked at different sports, darts is one of those where it doesn’t even get classed as a sport sometimes. But if you look at top-end sports, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, some guy isn’t going to tell him how to swing a racket.
“There’s elements that you might not see yourself, so if you are ignorant to the fact that you can’t accept help sometimes and that certain people can see different things then it will be to your detriment at the end, so I have looked elsewhere.”
