Watson enjoying Port Stephens camp

The nib Newcastle Knights are enjoying sunny Port Stephens this week, with a three day camp in Nelson Bay after Saturday’s trial match loss to the Parramatta Eels in Maitland.

After training at Tomaree Sports Complex on Wednesday, Connor Watson told Knights TV he was enjoying the change of scenery.

“We can keep developing our friendships and developing those combinations on the training paddock,” he said.

“It’s good to get away, it’s a nice place and the sun is shining."

“I’ll be in the surfing group tomorrow, but they reckon there’s a few sharks hanging around so don’t know if I’ll be going too far out.”

Looking back at Saturday's trial match, Watson said he was deeply disappointed.

“We didn’t really give ourselves a shot at competing."

“There were too many errors and a lot of ill-discipline.

“While we had a good trial against the (Melbourne) Storm, we came out against the Eels and didn’t deliver what we really wanted.”

You don’t give yourself a chance to compete when you turn over so much ball

Connor Watson Five-eighth

The 21-year-old admits low possession was ultimately their downfall.

“I think the game finished up and they had 67 per cent possession of the ball... so that’s crazy numbers,” commented Watson.

“You don’t give yourself a chance to compete when you turn over so much ball and we know it’s as simple as holding onto the ball and not giving away as many penalties.

“We were in the game with 20 minutes to go but it just blew out at the end and our fatigue showed as well.”

Partnering with Mitchell Pearce in the halves, Watson said he wasn’t happy with his defence on the day and will be doing what he can to get it up to scratch before Round 1.

“I was very disappointed with that in my game.

“I need to get the boys around the park a bit more, get in there and really hold the ball and then we might get a few more attacking opportunities.”

Watson admits the team has got a big week and a half ahead of them to turn it around.

“Obviously, it was good to get that game out of the way because you don’t want to do that when you’re playing for points.

“That’s the lucky thing, it was only a trial game, but we’ve just got to take lessons out of it and we’ll be right in two weeks’ time against Manly.”