Phil Taylor is the most successful, most dominant, and greatest darts player of all time.
We don’t think that statement is going to be disputed much. 16 x World Championship titles, 16 x World Matchplay titles and almost two decades of complete dominance.
Taylor has played against most of darts greats and the truly great players were capable of beating him and cementing their own names in darts legacy.
There are, however, some players who had good careers but seemed to live in Taylor’s shadow.
While he went about winning major title after major title, there are some players who would have had more decorated careers if it weren’t for coming up against ‘The Power’ time and time again.
We’ve listed 7 darts players who COULD have had better careers if Phil Taylor didn’t exist.
*This is just a hypothetical list and something fun to think about. Some of these players could have had the same career trajectory even if Taylor wasn’t around…
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7) Raymond van Barneveld
Raymond van Barneveld has had a sensational career even with Phil Taylor existing.
Their 2007 World Championship finals is regarded as one of the best matches ever!
A five-time world champion (4 x BDO, 1 x PDC), Barney has been to 32 major finals across the BDO and PDC winning 20 titles in the process.
His impact on Dutch and European darts is still being felt today as he can take credit for getting 100,000s – 1,000,000s of people into darts as fans or players.
After dominating the BDO, Barney moved to the PDC and won the World Championship at the first time of asking, beating Phil Taylor in the final.
This is the point, however, when RVB makes this type of list.
Of his 15 finals appearances in PDC majors, he lost in 6 of them to one man… Taylor.
After the initial world championship win, Barney would never be able to overcome Taylor in a final again, even losing the 2009 World Championship final 1-7 🫣
Barney still had a PDC career better than 90% of players but because of Phil Taylor, many fans believe Barney was overrated and couldn’t compete in the PDC with ‘better players’.
If it weren’t for Phil Taylor, this narrative definitely wouldn’t exist!
6) James Wade
We know what you’re thinking.
James Wade is the best player of all time to never win a world championship.
He’s the third most successful player in PDC history in terms of titles won – only trailing Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen – but the lack of a world championship title means his name rarely appears when discussing all time greats.
Most people think if it weren’t for Phil Taylor he’d be a world champion, however, that is not the case.
James Wade has never faced Phil Taylor in the World Darts Championship. Wade has made it as far as five quarter-final appearances and four semi-final appearances but he never came up against Taylor.
The reason he has made this list is because Taylor beat Wade in seven major finals.
Much like Barney, we don’t think Wade would have been much different in terms of how he’s viewed as a player, the only difference is he’d have probably won more titles/money without Taylor being around…
See also – 7 most UNDERRATED darts players of all time
5) Simon Whitlock
The greatest player to ever come from Down Under, Simon Whitlock is a cult hero in darts.
The mullet and beard combo alongside some legendary battles at the oche means that The Wizard will forever be remembered fondly in darts.
His achievements unfortunately aren’t quite what they could have been though.
Whitlock finished runner-up to Mark Webster in the 2008 BDO World Championship and then again in the 2010 PDC World Championship to none other than Phil Taylor.
Whitlock went to several PDC major finals but lost three of them to Phil Taylor.
It wasn’t that Phil Taylor dominated him like he had some others on this list but Whitlock only managed one major title during his career.
While he is still considered Australia’s greatest player by many, Tony David actually won a BDO World Championship.
David wasn’t the character that Whitlock was though.
Had Whitlock won the PDC World Championship, he could have done for Australia what RVB did for darts in Holland but this wasn’t to be thanks to a certain Phil Taylor…
4) Wayne Mardle
Wayne Mardle is one of the most loved personalities in darts. Notice we say ‘personalities’ and not players.
He’s probably best known for his comments during one of the best legs of darts of all time:
“I can’t spake” is now a legendary line in darts.
The former pro turned pundit had a solid career in darts but didn’t achieve as much as he’d have liked to, arguably the biggest reason for that (something he often references) is coming up against Phil Taylor.
Hawaii 501 made it to three major finals during his career and lost every time to Phil Taylor.
Twice in the Las Vegas classic and once in the World Matchplay.
Mardle was also a four time World Championship semi-finalist but lost on two of those occasions to Phil Taylor.
Mardle will often say he had a good career and was one of the best players in the world for a number of years but his inability to overcome Phil Taylor definitely stopped him from achieving more.
3) Terry Jenkins
Terry Jenkins is unfortunately known as the darts ‘nearly man’.
This is because he’s been to NINE PDC major finals, but never managed to win one.
Related – Best darts players to never win a major title
Nine finals is a lot, you can’t make it to that many unless you’re a top player and The Bull was just that.
Of the nine finals, Phil Taylor beat him in four of them.
It wasn’t just one format though, Taylor beat him in the following finals:
- World Grand Prix (2006)
- Premier League (2007)
- Grand Slam of Darts (2008)
- World Matchplay (2009)
Four different tournaments in four years and every time he was HAMMERED by Taylor.
6-16 in the Premier League, 9-18 in the Grand Slam and 4-18 in the World Matchplay.
Jenkins also lost in finals to Raymond van Barneveld, James Wade, Adrian Lewis and Michael van Gerwen.
He was getting beat by the best of the best but if it weren’t for Taylor, surely there’s a chance he could have clinched one.
This one is probably the most speculative as he fell at the last hurdle so many times but of all the finals, Taylor was there beating him the most.
2) Peter Manley
Peter Manley is one of darts biggest villains. It wasn’t just fans who would get annoyed by Manley’s ‘antics’ but also fellow players and pundits.
Sid Waddell famously labelled Manley a cheat and his unlikeability has really impacted his reputation and legacy in darts.
We say legacy because Peter Manley is a three time PDC World Championship runner-up. He’s joint fifth for most finals appearances of all time with only four players making it to more finals.
He does stand alone in one category though.
For players who have never won the championship, Manley is on his own with his three finals appearances. All other players were either one-time wonders (winning or losing a single final) or they’d win and lose one or more.
Manley had multiple attempts but guess who he lost every time to?
Yeah… in 1999, 2002 and 2006 he came up against Phil Taylor.
Now those numbers are not a purple patch of form. That’s three finals appearances spaced out over several years.
Manley wasn’t relying on form, he had the ability to go to the final and if it weren’t for Taylor, he could have been a multi-time world champion.
Unfortunately that wasn’t to be and Manley rarely gets the credit for his darting ability.
1) Dennis Priestley
Now this really is a ‘what could have been’ scenario.
Dennis Priestley is often considered to be Taylor’s greatest rival, especially during the 90’s when Taylor rose to dominance during the new PDC era.
He is also considered one of the best players ever (top 10 territory), and while Priestley wasn’t the best to watch due to his painfully slow throw, his consistency and ability outweighed that.
If Phil Taylor didn’t exist, Dennis Priestley would have DOMINATED the 1990’s.
At the start of the decade, Priestley beat Eric Bristow to win the BDO World Championship, Phil Taylor to win the British Matchplay, and Mike Gregory to win the Winmau World Masters.
1994 was the beginning of the breakaway and Priestley won the first ever PDC World Championship, smashing Taylor 6-1 in the final.
The Menace was the man to beat, but that run soon came to an end because of Phil Taylor.
Phil Taylor would go on to beat Priestley in four World Championship finals. Outside of Taylor, Priestley has the most runner-up finishes in the competition and that is also because of Taylor that he has so many.
Early on Taylor struggled with Priestley’s slow style of play but once he figured him out (John Lowe told him to walk around the players table after collecting his darts so that he could maintain his rhythm) it was game over.
Priestley is still considered great but without Taylor, he could have won titles that would have had him in conversation alongside the likes of Bristow or Lowe.
When one man dominates a sport like no one has before, there’s going to be a lot of people that lose out as a result.
Taylor was hogging titles like Scrooge Mcduck and removing just one man from darts would have changed the careers of so many other players. It’s really a crazy scenario to think about!
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