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EspañolDerry's 1-31 to 0-14 win over Cork felt like a real statement, one that will reverberate around the country that the Oak Leafers are back.
It's now four wins in a row for Ciaran Meenagh's men after failing to win a league or championship game throughout last season - all of a sudden the confidence and belief is back on and off the field.
Twelve different scorers, 1-31 racked up (1-28 of that from play) in a 20-point win, all six forwards on target and completely dominating a previously unbeaten Cork side.
Derry sit top of the second tier on scoring difference with two games to go (Louth away, Cavan at home) and look primed to make an immediate return to the top tier.
The manner of the performances from a side which reached the All-Ireland semi-finals in 2022 and 2023 as Ulster champions have produced, it's only going to send the rest of Ireland into high alert.
Despite the pending outside noise, Derry manager Ciaran Meenagh isn't getting carried away and is solely focused on the task of gaining promotion.
"I don't know about that (being back). You're only as good as your next game, and our next game is against Louth in Ardee," Meenagh told BBC Sport NI after Sunday's win.
"They (Louth) beat Tyrone, and I watched them on TV last night (victory over Cavan), so you would need to have your two feet on the ground when you'd be going there to play,.
"We'll not be looking any further than that, because I haven't looked at it that well carefully, but my feeling is that we have to win that game to be sure of getting promoted because if we don't, then Louth will have us on the head-to-head, and you have different permutations with Tyrone playing Meath and Meath playing Cork and so on."
Aerial dominance and a ruthless edge
Cork won the toss at Celtic Park and opted to play with a stiff breeze during the first half as two monster two-pointers from Steven Sherlock had the visitors 0-8 to 0-5 ahead on 21 minutes.
The Oak Leafers took full control of the Cork kick-out, winning eight of the last 10 before the break to go in leading 1-10 to 0-9.
A run of 1-3 without reply, including a goal from the returning Lachlan Murray with a super assist from Conor Glass, have Derry a platform at the break.
"In terms of going into that place at half-time and then to have the breeze at your back in the second half, the whole thing was to get the first 10 minutes of the half right then. We went for the juggler 10 minutes into the half and I think the game then was effectively over." Meenagh added.
Overall Derry won 19 of the 35 Cork restarts, 10 unanswered scores in the 10-minute burst after the half ended the game as a contest.
In the modern game and under the new rules, kick-outs are huge and in Conor Glass and Brendan Rogers, Derry have arguably the best midfield pairing in the country.
Ethan Doherty, Padraig McGrogan, Paul Cassidy and Conor Doherty are all masters at scooping up the breaks.
"It was a situation where we had to get man-to-man on their kick-outs, and then the further we got from them to be a bit more zonal, he's (Michael Aodh Martin) not as strong to his right-hand side.
"We had all that work done, but we were very frustrated with the players early on in terms of their attitude to how they closed him down.
"So, we got that message on to the field, we got that rectified, and I think we won eight of their last ten kick-outs at the end of the first half. That gave us the platform then to build ourselves into the game."