Hunter were the big improvers of 2023, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since returning to the Shute Shield in 2020.

But Scott Coleman was far from happy with how his side's year finished up and the coach has big plans to take the Wildfires deeper into the competition in 2024.

Overview with Scott Coleman:

“We’ve had a really good summer and it’s been great to get back to playing rugby through the trials,” Coleman told Rugby News.

“We played Manly up in Singleton a few weeks ago and the boys were itching to get on the field.

“We started our preseason a bit later than we did in previous years. We looked at last year and while I think we were physically still up for it at the back end of the year, mentally we were drained.