Well, its not just about location of the forcing, but also the strength.....I know the 2009 el Nino was appreciably weaker at the point and given that modoki forcing is warm in the fall, that may have had something to do with it. I would need to delve into it more as far as location/distribution of anomalies, but I wouldn't expect it to be as cold in an absolute sense even given identical circumstances due to CC.
Looking up the MJO data may be helpful.
Would be interesting to dig into this if anyone has time...I have work and the outlook right now.