Last word: It’s not about revenge, it’s about our season

"It would be great to win. It’s not about revenge, but about where we’re sitting, that’s why it’s so important to us," Holbrook said.

Leading 4-0 at half-time before the the table-topping Penrith Panthers flexed their muscle in the second 40 last Friday night, the Gold Coast mentor feels his side just needs to keep to the game plan that has got them oh, so close in weeks one by.

"I just think we need to stick at it. We haven’t been far off it," Holbrook said.

"I think we’ve played eight games and the Cowboys one was the only one we weren’t in the game. We were close again last week. I thought we did a really good job to lead against Penrith last week, but weren’t good enough to go on and win the game.

"We’ve just have to stick at it… the Dragons have shown they can win three in a row, the Broncos have just won three in a row.

"We’re not a million miles off. We can turn those narrow games into wins and get on a roll."

Despite the tight losses, morale is still high amongst the group with the squad sticking together feeling a result is imminent.

"We've had some narrow ones now, they sort of naturally knock us around for a few days, and then later in the week, they're given a clear plan and they're confident and ready to go," Holbrook said.

"There's no easy formula to it... when you're just winning or just losing, there's not much in it, but you got to still prepare the best you can and train as hard.

"As you can see, they're all sticking to it and we're not having any issues. They're all sticking together and probably the only week we didn't was that against the Cowboys week.

"We were really frustrated with that Manly loss, so we sort of upped the ante on everything and it sort of backfired.

"The only way forward is sticking together and keep working hard."

With Holbrook forced to make one change with Sam McIntyre coming in for the injured David Fifita, the side is pleased to have Patrick Herbert given the green light despite fracturing his left cheekbone in last weekend's clash.

The Titans will also keep the same spine as Round 8, with Jayden Campbell still at least another Hostplus Cup game away before coming back into contention.

"Unfortunately the way it works, he doesn't get to play this weekend, but it would have been terrific because he just needs another game or so and then he'll definitely come back into the mix. But I was happy really happy with the way AJ played at fullback, and Will Smith [at No. 6].

"We were pretty close last week, so I didn't need to make any changes."

Buoyed by the opportunity to play in tropical North Queensland, Holbrook feels it's a great thing to have the NRL played in regional venues.

"I think it's great for the game that sides move away from their home ground and take it to the regional areas," Holbrook said.

"I think it'll give a real buzz for Mackay and we're happy to play there."