Newcastle Hunter were given a last minute call up to a shortened Shute Shield season in 2020 and certainly weren’t disgraced despite an extremely limited preparation. 

As part on an agreement with the local Newcastle clubs, the Wildfires were required to recruit extensively from outside of their region and as a result they’ve assembled one of the more impressive playing groups ahead of the 2021 season. 

Overview with Scott Coleman:

“We’re really excited about the season ahead. We’ve got a lot of new faces at the club and now the challenge is to turn those new faces into a good footy team,” Coleman told Rugby News. 

“Last year was very rushed and everything happened at the last minute. It was a good eye opener to see where we need to get to to be competitive and I think all of our boys really enjoyed the step up in quality, that’s for sure. 

“It was a four week period that we had to try and get things together last year and we’re probably in a similar position to where we are now with a lot of new faces in the club. Last year we needed to improve our fitness and our ruck speed pretty dramatically to be competitive and we’ve continued to work on those areas. 

“I think the boys performed admirably. We still have a lot we can improve on but with the cattle we had last year and the limited preparation, we definitely achieved what we set out to achieve in our first season. 

“Our recruitment was driven by a decision from the local Newcastle clubs who basically set a KPI on our inclusion in the Shute Shield that we had to recruit at least 15 players from outside of the area to stop the player drain on the local competition. 

“We also knew we needed to add some quality in particular areas, like the tight five. We don’t want to be in the Shute Shield to be another number, we want to be there to be competitive and I know we’ve copped a lot of backlash from some of the Sydney clubs about our recruitment, but the Sydney clubs can’t have their cake and eat it too. 

“On average, we’re losing 14 or 15 players each year from Newcastle to clubs down in Sydney and eventually we want to build a competitive franchise up here so that players don’t want or need to move to Sydney to pursue their rugby. 

“We’ve done a lot of planning and it’s going to take time but we want to have a competitive club up here. We’ve started by focussing on first grade, because that’s what everyone sees first. We’ve put together a first grade roster that we think can be competitive. 

“Now we’re starting to work hard to build our colts program and that’s probably going to be a bit of a three year project. We’ve started by trying to keep as many under 18s players in Newcastle so that they don’t leave to join a Sydney club. 

“The Newcastle community has really got behind us and being a one club town, it’s going to help us with our corporate sponsors and partnerships and there are a lot of people working hard in the background to make sure the club is built sustainably.”

2020: 11th (two wins, one draw, nine losses)

Ins: Faavae Sila (returning – Warringah), Sam Tufuga (NZ), Kafongo Katoa (NZ), Joe Tomani (Melbourne), Tui Katoa (NZ), Sam Liebezeit (NZ), Ngaru Jones (NZ), Henry Stowers (Western Force), Olajuwon Noa (Melbourne),  Kirk Tufuga (NZ), Leon Fukofuka (NZ), Jayden Wright (returning – Eastern Suburbs), Nate de Thierry (NZ), Abele Atunaisa (Brisbane), Kemu Valetini (Melbourne), William Lewesi (Melbourne), William Feeney (Brisbane). 

Outs: Jeremy Burrell (Northern Suburbs), George Noa (Manly), Sitiveni Waqa (Western Sydney), Taylor Acheson (West Harbour), Taulogo Lalaga (WA Rugby), Shawn Ingle (Melbourne), Mahe Fangupo (Forbes), Nimilote Qio (Rugby League), Declan Cox (Melbourne), Matthew Dewar (Melbourne), Rob Buaserau (Rugby League), Hayden Cole (Rugby League)

Key areas of improvement: 

“Combinations is the big one for us at this stage. We’ve got to work hard because it’s no secret that we’ve recruited a lot of players and there are a lot of new faces at the club. 

“We had a trial on the weekend and we only had five players that had played with us before, the rest are all new guys. 

“We did a pretty intense boot camp over a weekend up in Newcastle, the tactical response team from the police up here actually ran it for us and that helped us build a lot of character and start to form relationships. 

“We noticed a difference straight away after that and the group seemed a lot tighter. We’ve been working hard to take the guys out of their comfort zones though so that they need to rely on one another to get through whatever they are doing.”

Player(s) to watch: 

“Definitely Henry Stowers. He’s probably going to be the best flanker in the competition to be honest. 

“Kirk Tufunga and OJ Noa both play No.8 and they are really talented. Leon Fukofuka, once he gets fit he’ll be really damaging. He’s the Tongan No.9 that we picked up. 

“Will Feeney has been really impressive through preseason. He’s a young 20-year old kid who has moved down here from Brothers in Brisbane. He’s got a massive left foot on him and he’s really keen to learn and improve, which is great for us.”

Bold prediction for the season ahead: 

“We’re aiming to win the competition but the first step to that is to make the semi finals,” Coleman said. 

“I think Easts will be right up there, they’ve got a lot of depth. Sydney Uni are also going to be really strong with Rob Taylor back. 

“Norths will also be tough to beat.”