"Patience is a priceless commodity in professional sport."
Hatley, who had a long career as a prop in England before turning his hand to coaching, is aware time is running out for the Australians to show some positive signs as they seek to avoid back-to-back Bledisloe Cup losses when they play the All Blacks in Dunedin on Saturday.
The whole squad, under coach Eddie Jones, know patience will run out if the Wallabies cannot rediscover some winning form.
"I think Eddie has been very clear about the plan we’ve got, and the way we want to go about it," Hatley said in Dunedin.
"We understand there is a real urgency to it. We’re not going to sit here and pretend we’ve got all the time in the world. We don’t."
Any comparison with the All Blacks could be seen as slightly unfair given they were just a few steps ahead of the Wallabies.
"I think the All Blacks are really settled, you know. They’ve had the same coach and pretty much the same squad for three or four years, whereas we have a brand-new coaching staff.
"We’re five weeks in and we’ve had three games, so I think there’s a big disparity in terms of cohesiveness and where they’re settled.
"The challenge is we’ve got a World Cup in 40-50 days. There are no excuses there. We’ve got to try to get into that position as soon as we can.
"The All Blacks this year have been very good. Our challenge is to make sure we’re not catching up. Our challenge is to be the best side we can be, at the right moments, heading into the World Cup."
Hatley has been impressed at the size and form of the All Blacks’ tight five.
The Wallabies’ challenge this weekend was to get more of their own big men into the game through ball-carrying duties.
Star prop Taniela Tupou was still "a bit sore" after sustaining a couple of blows off the bench in the Melbourne test against the All Blacks but had recovered reasonably well and done some training this week, Hatley said.
The Wallabies need a collective response to their poor form, but the coaching staff have identified some key men to lead the way.
"We’ve got people like Nic White, Andrew Kellaway, James Slipper and Carter Gordon.
"There are some young men that we want to give that responsibility to. We think everybody’s got a responsibility to step up, initially in their own position but then to help the team."
Motivation needed to be intrinsic, but the Wallabies, like the All Blacks and their use of former captain Richie McCaw, had enjoyed getting some inspiration from former players.
The great Mark Ella had been around the squad earlier this year, and there was also a visit from World Cup-winning prop Richard Harry.
Reports of Jones flogging the players at unusually strenuous training sessions were wide of the mark, Hatley said.
"I think it’s applicable training. I don’t think it’s any tougher than what other test sides are doing.
"The biggest goal in training is to get better, and in order to do that, we have to push ourselves."
