De Thierry looks destined for the sidelines having suffered a shoulder injury on the stroke of full-time, shortly after kicking the winning penalty goal in a 23-21 result against Southern Districts at Woy Woy Oval.

How long De Thierry will be out for remains unclear.

"He went to kick it out at the end of the game and got taken out. He wasn't expecting it and landed funny, subluxed his shoulder. It was pretty ordinary and now he's under an injury cloud," Wildifres coach Scott Coleman told the Newcastle Herald.

Hunter hooker Hamish Moore (neck), who was voted players' player, also poses a slight concern. Wildfires fullback Ethan Morgan and yet-to-return Andrew Tuala (knee) shape as respective replacements.

Morgan crossed twice in what Coleman described as a "see-sawing battle", Hunter eventually prevailing over Souths for the first time since rejoining the Sydney-based competition in 2020.

"We finally broke the hoodoo against Souths. It was just good to get the win and the boys show a bit of fight to come back in the last five minutes," he said.

The Wildfires rebounded from last weekend's season-opening 64-17 thumping by title holders Randwick.

"We needed to bounce back from that. We'd done too much work in the pre-season to start 0-2," Coleman said.

Also in round two - upcoming opponents Gordon lost 40-36 to Easts, Warringah beat Randwick 26-13, Manly edged out Sydney Uni 31-29, Norths defeated Eastwood 38-27 and Two Blues toppled West Harbour 52-36.

In the women's Jack Scott Cup, the Wildfires went down 7-3 to Souths.