The presence of Mal Meninga within Gold Coast’s hierarchy is not unsettling to new Titans coach Justin Holbrook.

Meninga’s role as the Titans’ head of performance and culture came under scrutiny during a diabolical 2019 NRL campaign.

Within months of his appointment, Meninga was charged with heading an internal review of the club’s football operations.

Just days before the findings of that review were tabled to the board in July, executive chairman Dennis Watt sacked coach Garth Brennan.

Since helping the club appoint Holbrook as Brennan’s replacement, Meninga has relocated to Canberra but says he’s committed to seeing out his three-year contract with the Titans.

Holbrook arrived on the Gold Coast on Monday and is yet to speak to Meninga with the Australia coach in camp with the Kangaroos ahead of this weekend’s Test against Tonga.

But the 43-year-old says Meninga has made it clear he won’t be interfering in Holbrook’s work.

“His stature as Australia coach and obviously as a Queensland legend, as a Titans club we’re very fortunate to have him with us,” Holbrook said.

“For myself, I’ll definitely be having chatting to him as often as I can.

“He’s made it clear I’m the coach, which is great, but I’ll definitely be getting his input because you’d be silly not to.”

Holbrook will begin pre-season training next week, less than a month after guiding St Helens to victory in the English Super League grand final.

He also hasn’t ruled out using his knowledge of English rugby league to bolster his squad.

“It’s entirely up to the players,” Holbrook said.

“Super League is a great competition over there, there’s plenty of players that are good enough to play in the NRL.

“John Bateman’s been spoken about a lot this year, everyone’s raving about how well he’s played but I’ve sort of said a number of times that he’s played like that for seven years, you just don’t watch it closely because it’s over there.

“There’s a number of guys that are capable of playing here.”