After watching older brother Michael twice lift the Challenge Cup on television from back home in Australia, Joel Monaghan is desperate to experience that Wembley feeling for himself.
The former Canberra Raiders winger missed out in his first season in England when Warrington were beaten by eventual Cup winners Wigan in the semi-finals.
And now he’s hoping to keep alive his chances of reaching the final of Europe’s rugby league cup competition when the Wolves take on French side Catalan Dragons in Sunday’s quarter-final in Perpignan, France.
“Mick’s medals are sitting at home,” he said. “I get to walk past them every day and I’d love to add to them.
“In fact, the majority of the team have been there and done that so it’s something I really want to do.”
Warrington face a tricky hurdle at Stade Gilbert Brutus, where the Dragons are unbeaten this year and where they inflicted a 44-16 Super League defeat on Tony Smith’s men on Easter Monday.
That crushing defeat, which denied the Wolves a chance to return to the top of the table, will give them extra incentive as they seek to book their place in the semi-final draw, which will be made immediately after the tie in France.
“It’s a tough draw and a tough trip,” said Monaghan.
“They embarrassed us the other week and we’d love to fix some things up that went wrong last time.
“We didn’t handle it very well. A lot of us made uncharacteristic errors and across the board we were pretty poor.
“It was a pretty disappointing feeling after that game, probably one of the worst since I’ve been at this club, to be embarrassed like that.
“Since then, though, we’ve made some strides forward and we don’t intend to take any backward steps.
“Around the area here, they’re mad about the Challenge Cup and it would good to be part of it, although we can’t get caught looking too far ahead.”
Huddersfield, who lost to Warrington at Wembley in 2009, will host London Broncos in the last of the four quarter-finals at the Galpharm Stadium.
Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield scored 28 points as the Super League champions booked their place in the semi-finals with a 60-12 destruction of part-timers Leigh last night.
“We’re in the semi-finals so it’s job done,” Leeds assistant coach James Lowes said. “It means everything to the players, particularly after last year.”
