Press conference: Mitch Barnett on Round 11
While the team as a whole underperformed against the Penrith Panthers in Round 10, a lot of the angst from fans was directed at Connor Watson after several crucial errors from the young half.
On Monday Mitch Barnett came out in defence of his teammate, stating that the team as a whole was responsible for the dispiriting defeat.
"You can't just single him out, the whole team has to do better," the back rower reasoned.
"Connor is a really good player... a great attacking player for us."
Watson ran for 108 metres, made two line breaks and 21 tackles at 91 per cent accuracy, and it probably would have been his best game for the Club if he didn't come up with two momentum-swinging errors.
But the team as a whole conceded nine penalties and made ten errors.
"He tries really hard so we can't be too harsh on him as a team," Barnett explained.
"They didn't earn a couple of their tries, they just came from poor decisions from us which is disappointing.
"It's a team sport... if an individual has discipline problems then the whole team does."
Barnett is keen to look to the future rather than the past though, and believes the team can get a win this weekend against the Gold Coast Titans.
"The thing about rugby league is that there's always next week, so we need to make sure we don't make the same mistakes against the Titans.
"The difference between our good and our bad is a long way, so we need to change that."
