[1][2][3] After leaving school, he worked as a delivery boy for a fish and chip shop, as a shepherd, and as a fireman for New Zealand Railways (NZR).
In 1943, he was allowed to join the Royal New Zealand Navy, and he did his basic training at HMNZS Tamaki on Motuihe Island.
They married after the end of the war, on 24 September 1945, at a church in Dewsbury, and returned to New Zealand to live, settling in Invercargill.
[6] In his first bout, he was defeated by the Australian wrestler, Jack Little, 0 bad points to 3,[7] while in his second match he was beaten by a fall by Henry Hudson, the eventual gold medallist, from Canada.
[3] Monaghan was one of 25 wrestlers named in a training squad to prepare for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, and in August 1956 he was one of four men nominated by the Dominion Wrestling Union for the New Zealand team.