Win over Mayo can reignite Derry summer - Bradley

Emmett Bradley says it's difficult to pinpoint the reason or reasons for Derry's alarming dip in form but nevertheless believes victory for the Oak Leafers over Mayo in Castlebar on Saturday evening could reignite their summer.

Bradley's late goal helped Mickey Harte's side end a run of three straight championship defeats as they battled past Westmeath last weekend to set up the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final.

Derry were again unconvincing for the most part but Bradley says "getting the result" was the key part of the exercise.

"There was a bit of improvement at the weekend, albeit that it wasn’t a performance that we were overly happy with," said Bradley, who was speaking at Tuesday's launch of the knockout stages of the All-Ireland Football Championship which took place at his Maghera-based home club Watty Graham's Glen.

Bradley contributed hugely to Glen clinching a cherished All-Ireland Senior Club title in January and is now hoping to help the Oak Leafers' regain the kind of form which saw them beat All-Ireland champions Dublin in the Allianz Football League Final in late March.

"We knew it was going to be a tricky fixture for us given what had gone on," added Bradley of the 2-7 to 0-9 win over Westmeath.

"It was important for us to get the result we’re just focusing on entire energy on Mayo now and that’s all we can really do to be honest."

Harte rumours 'nonsense' - Derry chairman

Derry started the championship as many people's favourites to challenge Dublin and Kerry for the All-Ireland title but Donegal's Jim McGuinness-directed ambush of the Ulster three-in-a-row seeking Oak Leafers sent them into a tailspin as defeats by Galway and Armagh followed.

The hammering by Armagh led to some fevered social media discussion about Mickey Harte's future as Derry boss but Bradley says the arrival in the household just over four months ago of baby Annie means he has little time this days to check out theories being spouted by the keyboard warriors.

Derry GAA chairman John Keenan told BBC Sport Northern Ireland at Tuesday's gathering that the chat doing the rounds around Harte's future was a "complete load of nonsense".

Amid all the noise, Harte's side chiselled out a win over Westmeath but there was little evidence of the high-octane football Derry have produced in recent seasons so they look to have it all to do against a Mayo side that drew with All-Ireland champions Dublin on Sunday and probably should have won the game.

"At the end of the day, we’ll take it [the Mayo game] at this stage. It’s an opportunity to get through to the next round," added Bradley.

"If we happen to get over the weekend, we’ll be at the same stage as all the other teams that made the quarter-finals initially. It’s maybe not the route we wanted to take but it’s where we’re at and what we have to face up to."

But Bradley knows full well that the Oak Leafers are almost certainly going to have to pick up their performance level considerably to compete with a Mayo side that impressed against the All-Ireland champions.

"If we are able to go and compete there and get the result, that’s going to be huge in terms of getting the buzz back, and a bit of form back and the fluidity. Hopefully we can do that. That’s what we’ll be aiming for. Let’s see what happens."

Bradley acknowledged that Derry's recent malaise could be interpreted as peaking too early in the year as opposed to building up steadily in the way Dublin and Kerry, in particular, have operated thus far in 2024.

However, he's not entirely convinced that argument holds water, instead suggesting that Derry's concession of goals, which were started by the four Donegal scored at Celtic Park, has been the Oak Leafers' principal problem.

"You take the Donegal game for example, the nature of the goals that went in, and just the way the game plays out it can make it look like a team is very off the boil in some way.

"That's very common and it's very difficult to see that if you're observing the game as opposed to actually being in the middle of it.

"Goals are a huge area of the game and they swing the momentum in favour of the opposition and that's a very difficult tide to swim against in many ways."

'Performances not good enough'

Three of Donegal's goals came as Derry's fly goalkeeper Odhran Lynch was caught hopelessly out of position on each occasion with the Oak Leafers suffering a total system malfunction.

Asked whether that defeat was psychologically damaging, Bradley replied: "If any team experiences a defeat like that they're going to be hurt by it, of course.

"I suppose in the Armagh game we were caught with a few goals as well which again, they are sucker blows, but in the moment we need to find a better way to respond to it as a group of players.

"For us, the performances haven’t been good enough. We know that. Our entire energy within the group is about trying to rectify that and address what went wrong in those few championship games."