Paul Gallen has admitted his final season with Cronulla has been "stressful" as the Sharks have failed to live up to expectations.
The Sharks host the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday, the second of three consecutive home matches at PointsBet Stadium in the final weeks of the regular season.
Cronulla's win over local rivals St George Illawarra saw them climb back into the top eight. They will likely need to win at least two of their last three games to make the finals.
The Sharks have endured a turbulent season on and off the field, with Cronulla's star-studded line-up also suffering a host of injuries.
Gallen, Cronulla's inaugural premiership-winning captain, will retire at the end of the season. He notched his 200th game as Sharks skipper in the win over the Dragons and said after the match it had been a difficult year.
"I'll be honest, this whole year has been stressful. We haven't lived up to expectation. We know that. I'm not saying anything anyone doesn't know there," he said.
"Our team on paper doesn't reflect what you do on the field. Unfortunately we've got a star-studded side on paper but we haven't been able to produce it on the field. Hopefully a win like that [over the Dragons] can just boost us in the right direction and next week we can get a win against the Warriors and then obviously the last home game against Canberra.
"We've got to string some games together so we make sure we're in the [top] eight. If we can get in the eight we've got the potential to click and win a few games. All of a sudden we're in a grand final. So the potential is there but potential doesn't mean wins."
It was an unusual performance from Cronulla in the derby. The score, particularly in the first half, didn't reflect their dominance. But despite their dominance they were poor in a number of aspects. The Sharks just completed 30 of 42, or 71 per cent of their sets and made 16 errors.
Gallen said Cronulla would need to improve greatly on that performance if they are to feature in the finals.
"It wasn't pretty at all but at the end of the day it's about getting the two points and we did that. We've just got to back it up [against the Warriors] and make sure we win here at home once again," he said.
"No, [the score] didn't reflect [our dominance] at all. But it's been the story of our year, bombed tries at crucial moments. It could have been 24-0 quite easily and at 24-0 the game is over, we can probably have some fun the last 20 minutes.
"Bombed tries, pushing passes coming out of our own end that aren't on. And it's everyone to be honest with you, it's senior players. We've got the stand up the next couple of weeks and make sure we get these victories. Particularly next week. We've got to concentrate one game at a time and the first one is against the Warriors next week.
"We had to [defend well] because we put ourselves [in that situation]. Twelve points against us is a good outcome. We have a goal of 15 or under and we've hardly achieved that all year. So just 12 points against us is a positive. Hopefully we can build on that this week."
