Nothing is guaranteed (From Warrington Guardian)

Nothing is guaranteed

WOLVES' record signing Martin Gleeson does not consider himself to be guaranteed a starting place every week in 2005 - despite his heroics in helping Great Britain reach the inaugural Tri-Nations final!

The centre capture from St Helens and his Lions teammates were sickeningly blitzed by Australia in Saturday's showdown at Elland Road but Gleeson impressed enough in the previous matches to be whetting the appetite of Wolves' fans for next season.

Even on Saturday, in a humiliated national side, Gleeson looked dangerous each time he received the ball but, as in some previous Tri-Nations clashes, possession did not go his way often enough.

Gleeson, who is on a break and returns to Wolves' pre-season training in January, is now focusing on his first season at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

He said: "Warrington's back line for next year is looking very explosive. There are plenty of quality backs to pick from and it would be wrong for me to think that I'll be guaranteed to start every week.

"Everyone's got to earn their place in the team. If you let yourself get in the comfort zone your game ends up going downhill and you sometimes don't even realise it.

"In that situation a kick up the backside is usually what is needed. You have to keep learning and trying hard if you want to improve as a player and I certainly do."

He considers teammate Brent Grose to be an 'awesome player' and another of his main rivals for the centre spots, New Zealander Toa Kohe-Love, is someone he has admired for years.

Gleeson said: "Toa Kohe-Love is a class player. When I was younger at Huddersfield, I looked upon Toa as being one of the best players in the league.

"I even used to model my game on his so it's going to be good playing alongside him.

"Actually, I'm looking forward to playing with all three of the Kiwis that have followed me to Warrington.

"Logan Swann has played at the top level for many years. He's a big bloke and I'm sure he will add plenty to the pack for us.

"As for Henry Fa'afili, I played against him for Great Britain versus New Zealand in 2002.

"He scored quite a few tries in that series and if he's my winger then hopefully I can put him in for plenty more tries.

"I really fancy playing alongside him but I'm not really bothered who they put me with. My job is to put my winger away, whoever that may be."

Gleeson has trained with Wolves but not pulled on a jersey for them due to signing for the club in July, midway through his four-month ban for betting against his own side to lose at Bradford on Easter Monday.

He said: "It's been frustrating not being able to play for my new club.

"All of the lads have welcomed me with open arms. I've had no problems settling in and I'm itching to line-up alongside them in a competitive match.

"I have played against all of the players at Warrington but the only one that I've played alongside is Graham Appo.

"So I'm really looking forward to the start of next year.

"From what I've seen in training we have a squad that has huge potential.

"There is a lot of skill there. We are looking strong for next year and I'm confident that we'll get a top six spot at least." Nothing is guaranteed