A 43-28 loss to Norths was not the way the Hunter Wildfires wanted to end the regular season, but coach Scott Coleman remains confident ahead of a return trip to North Sydney Oval for the first round of the Shute Shield play-offs.
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The Wildfires entered the final round in fourth position.
However, Gordon beat Sydney University 36-7 and Manly earned two bonus points from a 27-24 loss to Eastwood to both jump the Wildfires.
"The boys were shattered after the game," Coleman said. "But once we had done the debrief, we walked away reasonably confident.
"Norths at Norths is a daunting task but we are excited for it.
"We are into the finals now and it is anyone's race. As we have seen all year, bottom teams can beat top teams."
The Wildfires beat Norths 29-5 at No.2 Sportground on May 13.
However, they will be without Isaac Ulberg for the play-off after the winger dislocated his shoulder attempting to score a try.
On the plus side, Ueta Tufaga and Alex Pohla (thumb) both got through the game unscathed.
Nate De Thierry (cork) and Nick Dobson (calf) will also be available.
On Saturday, Tom Watson, who was outstanding, put the Wildfires up 7-5 after eight minutes.
However, the home side piled on four tries before the break to take control 26-7
The Wildfires rallied to cut the margin to 36-28 before gifting Norths a try at the death from a dropped ball near their own line.
One of the other tries they conceded was the result of a miscommunication between fullback Ethan Morgan and winger Chris Watkins. They allowed a bomb to bounce which was collected by Norths centre Henry O'Donnell.
Wildfires hooker Andrew Tuala crossed for a double to take his tally to 16 and wrap up the competition's leading try-scorer's award.
"We came away from that game pretty confident, which sounds stupid if you look at the scoreline," Coleman said.
"We let in a two soft tries in our D-zone. One from a maul and another from a pick and go. That normally doesn't happen.
"They punished our mistakes and we failed to execute 10 A-zone attacks.
"We didn't win the collisions as much as we should have. We were a bit slow to arrive at the break down every now and then and we didn't take space in defence.
"They are all things that are very fixable."
James Gardiner
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
