Muller had just watched his side lose 41-7 to the Dubbo Rhinos, last year’s wooden spooners and a team he was hopeful of at least being competitive against.

Instead his side failed to capitalise on a strong start and trailed 5-0 at half-time, going on to concede another six tries in the second half.

The coach conceded it was going to be a tough year.

“We’re in a rebuilding phase but it’s going to take a long time. The guys are trying but it’s tough to change ways when they’re used to doing things they have been doing for a long time,” Muller said.

“I was hoping we might have been more competitive [against Rhinos] but I think we are going to have a fair few more losses before we have a win.

Muller said the side needed to go back and work on their fundamentals because they were lacking.

“We have to go back to the basic skills. At the moment they aren’t up to standard. Catching, passing, ball retention and skills that you should have when you come to first grade,” he said.

“There’s some good footballers here but they can lose their way a bit.”

Poor attendance at training is making the task even harder, Muller said.

“It’s a matter of putting in hard work but we are short of numbers, we don’t get many to training and if guys aren’t coming to training, they’re not going to get any better.”

The task doesn’t get any easier for the Wombats in their next match against Orange Emus on May 6.