St Helens will have to wait several months before potentially getting a chance to atone for last year's Super League heartbreak, but head coach Justin Holbrook knows they can only focus on the here and now, starting with Thursday's season-opening derby against Wigan Warriors.

Saints were the dominant team of the 2018 regular season, with Man of Steel Ben Barba and long-serving hooker James Roby particularly impressive as they topped the table.

However, Holbrook's men then suffered a shock home defeat in the semi-finals to Warrington Wolves, who were in turn beaten by Wigan in the Grand Final.

Missing out on a place at Old Trafford represented a hammer blow for Saints after they won 26 of their 30 league games prior to facing the Wolves in early October.

"It's still disappointing and always will be," Holbrook told Omnisport. "If I reflect on 2018 in 20 years' time it will be disappointing, but it's 2019 now, which is great, and we get to go again.

"The disappointing thing is we didn't win the big games, so that's the area we've got to get better at, but we won't get the opportunity until the end of the year, so we can't fix anything on that now. 

"We've got to start the year the way we did last year, wait for those big occasions to come and play a little better. We've got to play well [in the regular season] and give ourselves the same chance."

Both Barba and long-serving club icon Jon Wilkin departed St Helens at the end of 2018, the latter moving on after 16 years at the club.

Yet Saints, boosted by contract renewals for Roby and Tommy Makinson this week, will nevertheless be confident of mounting a serious title charge after bringing in three high-profile recruits from the NRL in Lachlan Coote, Kevin Naiqama and Joseph Paulo.

"We have lost some good players so it was really important we replaced them with good players and I think we've done that. We're ready to go," added Holbrook.

However, it remains to be seen whether this will be the Australian's last season at the club, with his contract set to expire at the end of 2019.

Saints chairman Eamonn McManus has made it clear he wants the coach to extend his stay, but Holbrook said: "It's too hard to predict your future in coaching.

"If I stay, I'm more than happy and if I get another opportunity elsewhere I'm happy with that as well. I'm definitely enjoying my time here and however long that is I'll make sure I'm doing the best I can."