The Wildfires completed the preseason with a 34-5 loss to Brisbane club Souths in Coffs Harbour on Saturday.

Three hit-outs have produced three losses. They opened the preseason with a 38-22 loss to Manly and then went down 40-10 to Western Sydney Two Blues.

"I'd rather be winning but I'm confident with where we are," Coleman said. "I was pissed off after the game and drank a couple of loser's beers. But when you sit back and think about it, the trials are all about preparation for round one.

"We started preseason four weeks later. Last season we flat-lined mentally towards the end.

"We planned for this - to work them really hard at training in the lead up to trials. We didn't back off at all. We wanted to see them under pressure.

"We were obviously flat and really clunky. Some of the boys drove up to Coffs Harbour the morning of the game, which is four hours in a car. Then we did a coaching clinic. It wasn't set up for success.

"We just didn't win anything. We were solid at the lineout. But we didn't dominate the scrum, we didn't have much ball and we didn't have field position.

"We will freshen them up now which will help massively."

Randwick, the defending Shute Shield premiers, will be supercharged for the opener at No.2 Sportsground on April 6 after the return of former Wallaby Kurtley Beale and NSW Waratahs fly-half Will Harrison.

Beale is back at the Galloping Greens after a year out of the game due to legal proceedings. He was last month found not guilty of sexual assault in a Bondi pub, opening the way for his return to rugby.

Harrison is on the comeback from a knee reconstruction play . He had been stood down by the Waratahs in January 2023 pending the conclusion of his legal proceedings and Rugby Australia's own investigations.

"Every [Australian] Super Rugby franchise will be waiting for an injury in 10, 12, 15 so they can call Kurtley in to their team," Coleman said.

"Harrison is coming back from a torn ACL. He has played two games for Waratahs A and killed it."

The Wildfires will be sweating on the fitness of hooker Andrew Tuala, who injured his knee and was replaced with 30 minutes remaining against Souths.

Fellow hooker Hamish Moore sat out the game and will have a scan on his injured biceps on Tuesday.

"AT (Tuala) looks like he has sprained the MCL in his knee," Coleman said. "We have two weeks before round one. Fingers crossed he recovers in time."

Coleman said he had most starting positions finalised for round one.

"I'll watch game again before I make a final decision, but I'm pretty close," Coleman said.

Deon Evans played himself into strong contention for a wing spot.