Jack O'Connor said his side were raring to have a "cut" at the Dubs after they burned off Mayo in the final quarter in Croke Park.
Kerry, after a sluggish opening, bounded into a long awaited All-Ireland semi-final with Dublin, David Clifford setting them in motion with a coolly taken first half goal.
Speaking afterwards, O'Connor said the 2019 All-Ireland final - when Dublin beat Kerry to complete the five-in-a-row will be uppermost in his players' minds.
The Kerry boss was inclined to brand Dublin's confounding 2021 campaign as a "blip", stressing that Dessie Farrell's side had recovered their drive and vim.
"The bottom line here is these Kerry players have been yearning to get a cut at the Dubs from as far back as three years ago. They lost an All-Ireland out there that they would feel they could have won. We certainly won't be lacking motivation but neither will Dublin."
"Dublin will want to show that they’re back as good as ever, the team that won the six-in-a-row. They had a blip last year and they look to have rediscovered the hunger and the drive that got them to that six in a row."
The Kerry manager was also quick to sound off, once more, about the lengthy gap between the Munster final and the quarters, branding the system "crazy", indicating that it contributed to his team's early malaise.
"We needed a game. I mean, it's ridiculous, we were sitting for four weeks watching our opposition playing games. It's almost like you're penalised for winning the provincial championship.
"Thankfully, that changes next year but it's a crazy system. What do you do? You try to make training as intense as possible and hope for the best. From watching that first half I thought we were a fair bit off the pace.
"In a way I suppose it was a perfect storm. We were four weeks without a game and Mayo played two games in the interim. Plus the slippery conditions made it difficult to get up the pace of it. Not taking away from that, I thought we were rusty in the first half. We gave away an awful lot of ball.
"I don't have the stats to hand but we must have given away nine or 10 possession in our forward line that allowed Mayo to counter-attack and we can’t afford to do that the next day because with the running power that Dublin have they’ll punish you at the other end."
Kerry fans got a hop early in the game, David Clifford trodding on the ball and rolling his ankle in the opening minutes, the Fossa star spending the guts of the next 10 minutes, hobbling around the pitch.
O'Connor said Kerry had "absolutely" considered withdrawing Clifford but eventually decided he was worth the risk.
"Obviously David was struggling through much of the first half. The boys worked on him at half-time but obviously he has an injury and, sure, look, we'll have to wait and see and get it scanned and see what’s the story.
"But he’s the kind of a player you’d nearly give the benefit of the doubt to most of the time. He’s not just an ordinary player and he showed it with the goal he scored which was a serious goal, because it came at a time when we were struggling to get scores and we were struggling to get a foot-hold on the game.
"That’s the class of the man, that’s what he can do."
And O'Connor singled out veteran midfielder David Moran for particular praise, the Kerins O'Rahily's midfielder clipping over a couple of points in an authoritative display.
"I think he kicked at least two points. Two points and really rolled back the years. Like, we didn't think there were 70 minutes in him. He thought so himself by the way and he proved it out there. It’s a great asset."
