After a dismal 1-5 start to the season, the Panthers have become one of the NRL's form teams on a seven-game winning streak that has rocketed them into fifth place on the ladder.
Penrith's defence appears back to its miserly best, conceding only 10 points on average across their winning run, with big names Nathan Cleary and Dylan Edwards outstanding in recent weeks.
But even after last week's comprehensive 36-2 defeat of Wests Tigers, Cleary said the Panthers still have improvement in them.
"I'm very happy with the way things are going. I think even over the last seven weeks, our performances have continued to grow. (But) I feel like there's more in us as well," he said ahead of Saturday's clash with Gold Coast.
"I still don't think we've found that cohesion we're looking for."
Cleary said inexperienced hands Casey McLean, Tom Jenkins and Blaize Talagi had all begun to find chemistry on the left edge following the Panthers' tough start to the year.
None of that trio were regular first graders at the Panthers before this season.
"Those guys played all the way through this whole period. That's really helped them," Cleary said.
"Now if we can get 'Yeoy' (Isaah Yeo) and 'Nat' and 'Dyl' and those guys all working together with both sides of the field and middles as well, we should only get better and we need to.
"It's exciting times ahead."
The Panthers coach still felt as though his side were underdogs despite salvaging their season and shaping as unlikely contenders for a top-four finish.
"We've come from the bottom and we're still in the bottom of the eight so we still feel like we're hunting," Cleary said.
Cleary insisted the Panthers would not underestimate 16th-placed Titans, who return to the Gold Coast on the back of an upset defeat of top-four hopefuls the Warriors.
"I actually like watching the Titans play, they've got some real game-breakers," said Cleary.
"They're a good team, they probably should've won more games. Hopefully it's not this week."
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