Hunter Wildfires coach Scott Coleman is hoping a better timed run towards this year’s finals series will help his side push deeper into the Shute Shield playoffs. 

The Wildfires were the form team of the competition in the early rounds of 2023 and qualified for the finals in sixth spot. 

But the Newcastle side went into a must win playoff match against minor premiers Norths on the back of four losses from their past five matches and fell short against the eventual grand finalists 23-17. 

“We’re taking a different approach to last year. We went hammer and tong from the start and worked really hard in that block before Christmas,” Coleman told Rugby News. 

“Because of that, we were a long way ahead of everybody at the start of the season, which we thought was great at the time, but mental and physical burnout really hurt us towards the end of the season.”

Heading into the club’s fifth season back in the Shute Shield, Coleman is confident his group can get more achieved in a shorter amount of time this preseason. 

“Everyone is in the competition to win it and you can’t do that in the early parts of the season. 

“We’ve toned down our preseason and we’ll change a little of what we do through the middle part of the regular season as well because we want to be peaking at the right time of the year when it really matters.” 

On the back of last year’s strong season, flyhalf Conor Winchester, outside back Alex Pohla and hooker Phil Bradford have all earned professional contracts in the US and leave three big holes in the Wildfires’ starting XV. 

“As a club, we’re rapt for those players and it shows that there is a pathway to professional rugby up here, without players having to move to Sydney,” Coleman, a proud country boy said.

“But it’s bittersweet that we won’t have them for most of next season. We’ve spoken to them about coming back when their seasons end and they all seem keen to do that but you never know what is going to happen there.”

After tasting finals footy in 2023, Coleman said his group was keen to take the next step in 2024 and that he didn’t think they had to change too much to do it. 

“First and foremost, we want to dominate at set piece time, that’s a big part of our game and always will be. 

“We’ll also tinker with our attack a bit and then hone in on our defence. That was probably my fault last year, I didn’t spend enough time on defence but we’ve changed that over summer. 

“We know what the standards are to get to the finals. Now we need to take that next step so that we can dominate at the back end of the year, not just make the numbers up. 

“It’s going to be another close competition. I think the bigger clubs will be stronger at the end of the year without the Wallabies and Australia A playing as many games. 

“I think there will probably be a bigger influx of Super Rugby players coming back and that is going to have a big impact.”