Warrington winger Joel Monaghan believes the Wolves need to up their game to defeat Castleford this evening, but thinks the motivation of ensuring players leaving do so with a bang will see them through.
The Australian, who was Super League’s leading try scorer in 2014, grabbed a hat-trick against Widnes last week but wasn’t happy with the overall performance.
“It was good to get the win. It was Michael’s last game at the HJ (Haliwell Jones) and mum and dad were here so it was pretty special for them to see that. I’m just glad it wasn’t his last game of Rugby League.
“Widnes are a good side. They started the game well and we were probably a bit shell shocked. They got the jump on us but to our credit we came out in the second half and spoke about just being relaxed, no need to panic as the points would come and they did fortunately for us.
“We are going to have to be better this week if we are going to go up to Cas and get the points. We’ve trained well and everyone’s looking forward to it.
“It’s going to be a tough one. They are on the back of a pretty bad performance. At their home ground they are going to want to go out there and prove themselves. It’s final chances, if you lose you are out. It’s got the makings of a good game.
“They made the Challenge Cup final this year and we’ve got a bit of finals experience that we can probably call upon. We’ve got a few injuries but still a pretty experienced team and hopefully we can go out there and do the job.
“We don’t look forward too much as you can end up stumbling somewhere. We speak about – the cliché – one week at a time but it’s probably more relevant now than ever. It’s a massive game for us – it’s knock-out football – if you lose you are out and none of us want that.
“There are a few blokes finishing up – Mick being one of them, and Trent Waterhouse, who has been great for us – you don’t want to let them go out on an away game against Cas. Hopefully we can go out there and get the win.”
