Derby delight capped the best 24 hours of Brett Kearney’s Bulls career.

The 18-12 win at Headingley came just a day after the Aussie put pen to paper on a long-awaited contract extension.

Kearney agreed terms two weeks ago but only finalised a new two-year deal, with the option for a third season, on Thursday.

It paved the way perfectly for Bradford’s first win at Leeds in almost four years – one that reignited their play-off push.

“It couldn’t have been a better couple of days for me,” said Kearney, who had to pass a late fitness test on a knee injury before getting the thumbs-up to play at Headingley.

“I signed off on Thursday and then beat Leeds. These are the moments you play footy for.

“Good wins and wins over arch-rivals feel twice as good, especially in front of a full house at Headingley.

“It’s one of those nights I’ll remember for a long time.”

Kearney reckons Friday’s victory was the best during his 18 months at Odsal so far. The manner of the win, the importance of the win and the identity of the opposition all contributed to the feeling of euphoria at the final whistle.

And Kearney has urged the Bulls to harness that emotion in a late-season push for the top eight.

“That’s the best win I’ve had in the two years I’ve been here.

“Not just beating Leeds, which is very satisfying especially as we’ve let a couple slip, but the way we did it.

“We really ground it out. We had 90 per cent completion second half, which is great in those conditions. We dropped our bundle a bit last week, which was disappointing, but we’ve picked it back up and we’ve got to keep running with this.

“We’ve put ourselves in a tough position to reach the finals but it’s still very do-able for us.

“This was the perfect game to get the ball running and there’s no telling what can happen if we make the eight.”

The Bulls face a tough task in attempting to log back-to-back wins.

Catalan Dragons visit Odsal on Saturday, a team Kearney fancies as dark horses for the Super League title.

He said: “It’s great to go back home after a win like this, especially against Catalan, who are a very good team.

“They’ve been one of the form teams in the competition so if we can get a good win against them, all of a sudden we’re very happy and going into games as a team to beat rather than underdogs.

“It will be a very tough game because they’re one of the best teams in the competition and very underrated.

“We can’t afford to take them that way because if we do, we’ll be feeling terrible next week.”