PLAYER INTERVIEW: Monaghan 'It's time to start playing ugly.'

On the back of Saturday's heavy defeat to Catalans Dragons Michael Monaghan feels defence is the key to take the side forward from last week's 52 - 14 hammering in France.

On the back of Saturday's heavy defeat to Catalans Dragons Michael Monaghan feels defence is the key to take the side forward from last week's 52 -14 hammering in France. Despite being 7th in the league, only Castleford have conceded more points than the Wolves, The NRL grand final star know this has got to be addressed:

" We have got some problems defensively, to be honest our defence was not up to it in France, the stats prove that we have the second worst defence in the league. We've had issues since the start of the year. Our focus has to be on improving this."

Monaghan recognised that it's going to take time to rectify things and has called for patience:

" Hard work is the ONLY way you can turn things around, it's time to start playing ugly. But it's going to take time, a philosophy change is needed, for the last three of four years it appears the club has had an attack philosophy but a defence philosophy is what we need to develop. It isn't going to happen overnight, though. It could take twelve to eighteen months of hard work."

Despite Saturday's 52 -14 defeat to Catalans Dragons, Monaghan feels the mood in the camp will remain positive:

" The mood is always good in the camp, we are close knit bunch of guys. It doesn't matter whether you win or you lose in that respect. The thing that does get affected by defeats is your confidence, but on the plus side in rugby league you are only seven days away from your next victory."

Last time Warrington took Hull FC was in round 1 of Super League with the Wolves running out 32 - 20 against an injury hit FC side, Monaghan feels this time the odds are stacked in Hull's favour:

" I think the roles are reversed with Hull this time. We have 7 or 8 guys out injured and they are in a bit of form at the moment. It gives a chance for the younger guys to stake a claim and show what they can do; and I'm sure they'll take it."

The Wolves copped a fair bit of criticism from supporters post Saturday's game in Perpignan Some supporters vented their frustrations post game and Monaghan was frustrated that they couldn't deliver a result for the traveling Primrose and Blue army:

"Obviously people were disappointed, we were. Being 38 - 0 down at half time is not good. However, I think criticism is justified, but personal abuse away from the rugby ground is not. I think a lot of the abuse from a minority was alcohol fueled, but saying that, 99% of our supporters are respectful and we are just massively disappointed we couldn't deliver for the fantastic support that followed us down to the south of France. We had trained hard in the lead up to the game, it's one result we going to have to take on the chin and move on from."