Big off-season has Hunter Wildfires centre Tommy Watson in shape to take on best in Shute Shield

Watson had spent two years at the Wildfires and his former Ballina coach Andrew Fraser, who also spent a time in the Hunter, was on the staff at Bond.

But the lure of the Shute Shield and the culture at the Wildfires proved too great.

The 24-year-old outside centre put his head down in the off-season, hit the gym and improved his speed and strength.

The fruit was on show in the opening round, with the 24-year-old producing a near man-of-the-match performance in a 27-19 over Manly.

"I thought about going up and playing on the Gold Coast for Bond," he said. "It's closer to home, friends and family. But I have some close mates here at the Wildfires. We are family now. The culture is great and we have a good team. Also the Shute Shield is the pinnacle. If I can play at the top club level in Australia, why go anywhere else."

Next for Watson - and the Wildfires - are perennial powerhouse Randwick at No.2 Sportsground on Good Friday.

Wildfires coach Scott Coleman has been blown away by the strides Watson has taken.

"He is faster, he is stronger, he has added four kilograms of muscle in the off-season," Coleman said. "The biggest thing is that he has more confidence."

Watson's improvement has coincided with the arrival of strike centre Alex Pohla from Gordon. Pohla has been hindered by a wrist injury and played 15 minutes off the bench against Manly.

"Tommy is the current 13 and Alex has to get it off him," Coleman said. "I challenged Tommy at the start of pre-season. I knew he was thinking about going home.

"I said 'you have only had two years of proper rugby and I think you can go higher. Who knows, you could go to Super Rugby. You are not going to do it from Balina'. He took the challenge head on and has been enormous."

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Watson burst through a hole in the second minute against Manly and admitted the gaps "feel a bit bigger this year".

"I am playing with a bit more confidence," he said. "That is credit to the boys around me."

Watson and the Wildfires face a big test against a Randwick outfit that welcomes back 2022 captain Ben Houston from the West Tigers and NSW Waratahs duo Will Harrison (fullback) and Greg Dowling (winger).

"They have a really dangerous back three," Watson said. "We want to play field position early but we need to limit the ball they get. We will look to play direct again and stick to our game plan."