The side won just two out of 17 hit-outs in their return to the top grade, recording consecutive wins over Parkes Boars and CSU in rounds 11 and 12.

But the club had never expected to explode back into Blowes after a three-year hiatus, and Burns said the Rhinos met their own expectations.

“We knew it was going to be tough stepping back up and particularly without any avenue to grow to move back up,” he said.

“I think the majority of us knew the standard of the football [would be high].

“We got a couple of hard-fought wins there but I always believed you should play the best rugby you can so we’ve got to compete with those bigger sides.

“I think we’re competitive with those bottom four or five sides but there’s a bit of a void. But yeah I think we deserve to be back up there.”

In a blow to the club the Rhinos will almost certainly lose half-back Chris Hobson next year as he eyes a return to Scotland.

Burns said a lot of things will need to change if the club hopes to continue improving in 2017.

“We need to get a lot more things in place. We need more coaches so the workload is reduced, we’ve got to get more helpers involved in the club,” Burns said.

“We’ve ultimately got to get more first-grade footballers into the club...we’ve got to find footballers that can play at that level.”

But the Rhinos return to the top level could be short-lived as speculation mounts about a move to a two-tiered competition. Burns admitted the Rhinos would find themselves in the lower tier.

“If a middle-tier competition comes about we’ll have a discussion with the Central West board about where we sit and to be honest if it comes down to where we sit we would probably go down into that competition and to be honest that would probably allow us to grow,” Burns said.

He called on any restructure to separate the top five sides – Orange Emus, Forbes Platypi, Dubbo Kangaroos, Bathurst Bulldogs and Orange City) from the lower six.

“There’s a big difference between the top five and the bottom five or six and something has got to change,” Burns said.

“Some of the clubs this year, there’s been a lot of forfeits and we’ve struggled some weeks so something has got to change.

“I don’t think anyone likes to see the big lopsided scorelines.”

Discussions around any restructure are set to get underway in the coming weeks, once the finals wrap up.

Burns has tipped an Orange Emus-Dubbo Kangaroos final.

“To me they appear to be more complete sides, as in they’ve got the tall second-rowers, your big front rowers, they’ve got fast outside backs and good halves and they’ve got depth,” he said.

“I know Forbes are quite strong in first grade but I just don’t think they’ve got the depth of the other sides.”