For trial coins and 9tails, Personally I always used a insta-barrier ninja (e.g : Onoki), Iruka and asuma WB. CC is a must to keeps out that cat from attacking and keeps health full except for the round where the cat tosses rain coins.

Hashirama is 1 step behind of any insta barrier ninja because when he cast mystery he did not perform an attack, meaning you loses a single dps, Except you can cast the barrier and move+1 jutsus at the 1st round at the same time. So hashi can cast barrier and cc. if not, you will lose DPS.
afterall, both coins cat and ninetails needs DPS right ?

But Overall, Earth main is not a way to go if you want to have the best DPS gameplay for both coins and 9tails IMO. :P