Josh Rock is determined to overcome Premier League struggles ‘the hard way’ and isn’t looking for advice from other professional players, including national teammate Daryl Gurney.
Premier League Darts Night 7 heads to Dublin this evening. Jonny Claton is currently top of that table after securing his second nightly win last week in Nottingham.
The 2021 Premier League winner is 8 points clear and while his campaign has got off to a flying start, Josh Rock is having a nightmare start to life amongst the Premier League elite…
The standings after Night Six in Nottingham, as Jonny Clayton extends his lead at the top of the table to EIGHT points 🐿️ pic.twitter.com/XvWCyElNct
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 12, 2026
After a great 2025 where the Northern Irishman made it to the semi-finals of the UK Open, World Matchplay and World Series Finals as well as winning the World Cup of Darts, Rock earned a place in the 2026 Premier League for his efforts.
This is something Rock said he was chasing last season and was reluctant to consider himself an elite player if he didn’t make the line-up.
Read more – Josh Rock won’t class himself as an elite player without ‘one’ career milestone
Unfortunately, his debut campaign is not going to plan. Rocky is yet to win a match and sits bottom of the table on 0 points.
Daryl Gurney gave his World Cup winning partner some advice during an interview a few weeks ago, however, Rock is determined to overcome his struggles without the advice of others…
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Josh Rock Not Seeking Advice to Stop Premier League Rut
Ahead of Night 7, Josh Rock attended media duties where he was fielded a number of questions regarding his Premier League form.
They raised Daryl Gurney’s recent comments saying Rock might be a little ‘soft’ and needs to be ‘harder’ on the Premier League stage and channel more anger.
Gurney was speaking from experience as he played Premier League Darts for three seasons during the late 2010’s, making the semi-finals in 2019.
Rock doesn’t believe this is something he can just switch on though and responded:
“I’m a person [where] I need to get something to get me angry. I can’t just put it on.
“There are times in some matches when I’ve put the angry head on because someone’s annoyed me during a game or whatever, I’ve clicked to form and been untouchable but something like that has to happen for me to get me going.”
When asked if he has continued to have conversations like that with other people including Gurney, Rock admitted that he isn’t looking for advice and wants to do things his own way saying:
“I’d rather obviously try and do it my way, learn the hard way and just get used to the whole surroundings of the Premier League.”
A nine-darter in front of his home crowd in Belfast for Night 5 has been the highlight of his debut campaign so far, however, with competition for Premier League places fiercely contested each year, Rock will want to improve his standing going into the latter half of this year’s competition.
Stephen Bunting faced similar pressure during the 2025 Premier League campaign as he didn’t pick up a point during the first 8 weeks of matches before eventually winning Night 9 in Berlin.
Despite picking up more wins to see out the campaign, Bunting would finish bottom of the Premier League table and if Rock wants to avoid a similar fate he’ll need to start picking up wins as soon as possible.
He takes on Gerwyn Price this evening who is heading into the match in good form having made the final of the European Darts Trophy in Germany at the weekend.
Both him and Rock were defeated by eventual winner Wessel Nijman who was in dominant form on the final day of action registering multiple 100+ averages against Premier League opponents.
Gian van Veen has had to withdraw from the event after being diagnosed with kidney stones which means Michael van Gerwen will receive a bye into the semi-finals.
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