NEW skipper Joel Monaghan is looking for improvements on the semi-final finishes of last season.

At last-four stages, Wolves went out of the Super League play-offs to Wigan Warriors and the Challenge Cup to Leeds Rhinos, with Joel stating that better is now expected such has been the progress of Tony Smith's side in recent times.

A slow start to 2014 was no surprise as Wolves learned to cope with the loss of influential stars like Lee Briers, Adrian Morley, Brett Hodgson and Garreth Carvell from the squad but Joel is filled with confidence about the 2015 campaign.

“We’re in a better position than we were last year to start the season but that doesn’t guarantee anything,” said the former Australia Test three-quarter at the start of his fifth campaign in primrose and blue.

“Now we’ve got to continue to do the work, go out on to the field and do what we’ve been training to do.

“We’re in as good a position as any team at the moment with the squad we’ve got.

“I think it’s going to take a deep squad to win it this year with the advent of the game’s new structure.

“Hopefully we can be pressing for trophies because although we came close last year, with where we are at the moment as a club it’s probably deemed that 2014 was a bit of an unsuccessful year.”

Warrington Guardian:

Thankfully the prolific try scorer is fit and well to start the campaign after a health scare during his travels in the close-season.

“No more trips to Cancun,” mum Mary has told her youngest of three sons.

He gave family, friends and all at the club a fright when he was struck down while on holiday in Mexico in October.

Joel, visiting the Yucatan peninsula’s party capital with friends from his old NRL club Canberra Raiders, told how one of his feet trebled in size and he ended up on a drip in hospital for three days.

Mary fears a Cancun curse because nine years earlier Joel, older brother Michael and four friends made national headlines back in Australia after getting caught up in the Hurricane Wilma disaster in that area.

“My mum’s said I’m banned from Cancun for life but I’ve said I’m going back this year. Head back on the horse,” he said with a mischievous smile.

Monaghan, Super League’s top try scorer last year, revealed he lost nine kilograms during his foot ordeal and has only recently got back to his regular weight.

The 32-year-old thought he must have damaged his ankle while ‘mucking around on the beach’ when he noticed his foot start to flare up.

“I’d been walking around barefoot. We were having a barbecue and I noticed the top of my foot was red,” said Monaghan, who takes over the captaincy from departed brother Michael and Ben Westwood.

“My foot started killing me and I thought I’d rolled my ankle. A couple of hours later it was probably treble the size so then I was thinking I must have torn a ligament or something.

“Then my other foot started. It turns out I’d either stood on something or been bitten by something.

“It was a blood infection and I was in hospital for three days and I lost nine kilos in weight.

“At the private hospital they got me straight on a drip and it was handled pretty well. It was an ugly sight to see but once they’d got the strong antibiotics in me it was all right and settled down in a few days.

“Luckily, big Dane Tilse from the Raiders took me to the hospital and looked after me. My mum loves Tilsey now for what he did for me.

“It took about six to seven weeks to get the weight back in line and I was still a couple down when we played the friendly against Widnes last month.”

His off-season ended with further adventures, visiting his four sisters in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before attending brother Michael’s wedding to Wigan girl Becky Marsh at Palm Beach on Australia’s New South Wales coast in December.

The Monaghan brothers had been living together in Latchford but with hooker Michael hanging up his boots and taking up the assistant coach’s role in France with Catalans Dragons it leaves Joel home alone for the first time since arriving on these shores.

“About 6.30pm every night I miss him when dinner’s meant to be on the table,” said a laughing Monaghan, who admitted his brother was the cook of the house.

“I live by myself now and I’ve learned to cook – I really enjoy it.

“There are times when I sit back and miss the company I had with Mick but we’ll all see him at the end of the month when we head over to France.”

It leaves one burning question. What are the Wolves fans going to do now without being able to sing the Michael and Joel Monaghan song on match days?

“I don’t know,” said Joel. “They’ll have to come up with something new. But it’s still better than some other songs I’ve heard around here.”

Warrington Guardian:

Joel and Michael Monaghan after the defeat at Wigan last year, their last game playing together

 

 

FACTS and figures behind new Warrington Wolves captain Joel Monaghan’s career so far in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

* Taken over captaincy from his brother Michael and England international Ben Westwood for the 2015 campaign
* Super League’s top try scorer in 2014 with 34 (including play-offs), finishing six ahead of second-placed Morgan Escare of Catalans Dragons. He scored four more in the Challenge Cup, making him Wolves’ top try scorer in one season since Brian Bevan’s 40 in 1959-60
* Finished as Wolves’ top try scorer each season (joint with Chris Riley in 2012) since his arrival in 2011
* Has scored 128 tries in 118 appearances for Warrington
* Scored more tries (72) than any other player at The Halliwell Jones Stadium
* Named in the Super League Dream Team in 2011
* Won the League Leaders’ Shield (2011), Challenge Cup (2012) and reached two Grand Finals (2012, 2013) with Warrington
* Gained representative honours for Australia, New South Wales, New South Wales Country, Australia Schoolboys, the Exiles
* Turned professional with Canberra Raiders in 2001
* Moved to Sydney Roosters in 2005 for three seasons, making 44 appearances and scoring 23 tries
* Returned to Canberra Raiders in 2008 for three seasons, taking his club totals in two spells to 129 games and 69 tries
* He was Canberra Raiders’ player of the year in 2008, before going on to make his Kangaroos debut later that year in the Rugby League World Cup and appearing in the tournament's final against New Zealand