The Raiders have lost eight of their past 10 games, but still only sit one win outside the finals places going into round 16.

They face the 13th-placed Gold Coast Titans at Canberra Stadium next Saturday in a game that at this stage has no crowd restrictions.

Papalii will return from Queensland State of Origin duty on Monday and he's hoping the week off will help launch the second-half of the Green Machine's season.

A win against the Titans will play a big role in that.

They've been in almost every one of their eight losses over the past few months, but have struggled to close games out in the second half.

It's left the Raiders scratching their heads and looking for answers.

But Papalii said they would put their shoulder to the wheel and look to find those answers.

He's had an up-and-down season, which has included a week off to mentally refresh and also a three-week suspension for a high shot in Magic Round - when the NRL started their crackdown on high contact.

But he's back to playing his best football, culminating in a return to the Origin arena at Lang Park on Sunday night.

Papalii ran for an average of 180 metres in his past two Raiders games - 178m against the Brisbane Broncos and 182m against St George Illawarra - as well as scoring a try and having five offloads.

He's averaging 143m per game in 2021 - just slightly below what he produced the past two years.

Seven of the Raiders' remaining 10 games were against top-eight sides - although that included the eight-placed Cronula Sharks, the Dragons (seventh) and the Manly Sea Eagles (sixth) twice.

Papalii was confident they could make the play-offs.

"We're going to have to work really hard to find ourselves in the top eight again," he said.

"I definitely believe we can. But it's going to take a lot of hard work, a lot of patience, trusting in our systems. We should be fine."

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Papalii pointed to their ability to start well and put themselves in positions to win games as a reason for hope.

They've either led or been in all eight losses during the past 10 games.

They led 6-0 against Penrith before getting overrun. They were 12-10 down against Parramatta at half-time.

They led the North Queensland 24-12 at the break. Were 16-14 up against South Sydney after 40 minutes. And were in front against Newcastle, the Melbourne Storm, the Sydney Roosters and the Dragons.

Those were the positives Papalii saw. The negatives were obvious though - the fact they couldn't close any of those games out.

They have been missing experience during the run with Papalii, Josh Hodgson, Jarrod Croker, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Joe Tapine, Sia Soliola, Ryan James and Curtis Scottall spending time on the sidelines.

"The boys are still turning up with a positive mindset and we're training pretty hard," Papalii said.

"We're just not performing for 80 minutes. We've obviously started well in all our games.

"Parra and Penrith were top four and we were leading both teams until the second halves.

"Obviously a lot of positives, but a lot of negatives as well. But it's nothing we can't fix."

NRL ROUND 16

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Gold Coast Titans at Canberra Stadium, 5.30pm.