The Wildfires suffered a second straight trial loss, going down 40-10 to Western Sydney Two Blues at Marcellin Park on Saturday.

The defeat followed a 38-22 surrender to Manly.

They take on Brisbane club Souths in Coffs Harbour next Saturday before opening their Shute Shield campaign against defending champions Randwick at No.2 Sportsground on April 6.

"It's not panic stations but we have a fair bit of work to do," Coleman said.

"We started our pre-season four weeks later this season. But we definitely hoped to be a bit more advanced than this.

"Next week is our last dress rehearsal. We will go full strength and have a decent crack. There are six spots up for grabs for round one. Our locks are not solved, the back-row is not solved, I'm yet to decide on the fullback and wings. I'm looking for guys to really step up."

The Wildfires won six of the opening seven rounds last year to set up their season.

"We obviously want to get away to a strong start again," Coleman said. "Randwick are the defending champions and now have Kurtley Beale back playing."

On Saturday, the Wildfires were out-hustled and out-bustled by the Two Blues.

"The game didn't flow at all," Coleman said. "It was a real stop-start affair.

"The Two Blues were strong. They just missed the semis last year and have improved. They have a massive pack and were pretty fit.

"It was just weight of possession. We didn't have enough ball.

"In the end, we played catch-up footy which cost us. We kept turning the ball over more and more."

The majority of the Wildfires issues were at the lineout.

"Once they saw we were struggling there, they went hard," Coleman said. "We were poor. We tried a few variations but couldn't get anything going."

The Wildfires' scrum was strong but their discipline was poor and they are still adjusting to the new below the sternum tackle height.

'Like most teams, we are still working on that," Coleman said. "It is going to take a while to adjust. We gave away a few penalties for that."

On a positive, centre Ueta Tufuga made a successful return from a hamstring injury, playing 20 minutes..

"Ueta got through 20 minutes," Coleman said. "We will look to increase him to 40 minutes next week. The most pleasing things was that we got through with no injuries."

Bo Abra will return against Souths after playing for NSW Waratahs A against the Brumbies Runners on Saturday.

Meanwhile, former Hunter Wildfires hooker Phil Bradford scored a try but it wasn't enough to save the Utah Warriors from a 23-13 loss to the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby on Sunday.