It's exactly what someone flying under the radar would say but Paul Gallen believes his Sharks outfit have plenty to improve on if they're to close the gap on premiership heavyweights North Queensland and Brisbane.
The Sharks have won their past four games and sit third on the NRL Telstra Premiership ladder but Gallen insisted that bar their Round 4 upset over the Storm none of their wins have been complete performances.
Gallen said lapses in their games against the Titans, Tigers and Raiders in recent weeks could have costed them precious competition points.
"We don't feel like we're flying. We still know there is a fair bit of the game we can improve on. We're not doing well in probably 10-20 minutes of games. We have been like that the past three weeks," Gallen said.
"We have had lapses of up to 20 minutes and we saw against the Tigers and Titans that it came down to the last play of the game where we could've been beaten. We're not running as hot as people think.
"If you look at the way we're playing compared to the other two [Broncos and Cowboys] you can understand why. They're a couple of rungs above everyone else at the moment," he added.
"I do think Brisbane and the Cowboys are at another level at the moment. How much improvement's left in them? I don't know. But they're above everyone else in a scary way."
The Cronulla skipper has been buoyed by his form of late despite playing catch up at training after a disruptive start to the year.
Gallen was relieved too by the form of his fellow forwards on the bench who are allowing him to be rested during games.
"I do take care of it a fair bit. I have it on ice constantly but being able to train at the moment is really good. It's good to get the running back in my legs," Gallen said of his knee injury suffered in Round 1.
"I had a terrible pre-season. I tore my calf in our last session in December. I didn't run at all in January and had one week of running before the first trial and then did my knee so I haven't had consistent training.
"With the players we have here at the moment though I don't have to play the 80 minutes any more. I played 75 last week and probably struggled a little bit with the fitness but we're fortunate with the side we have," he added.
Gallen also remained unperturbed by Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga's failure to get in touch with the NSW Origin skipper so far. The 34-year-old happy to roll with the punches when it comes to his selection for Australia in the upcoming Trans-Tasman Test.
