Mark Griffin has rejected the notion that Kerry have been handed a soft route to the All-Ireland semi-finals.
The Kingdom ran out 11-point winners in their quarter-final against Clare but despite putting 2-16 on the Croke Park scoreboard, Griffin insisted the Banner men did enough to raise a Kerry sweat.
"The scoreboard might be a bit deceiving, it was tough going out there," the St Michael's/Folmore full-back said.
"We have four weeks and we obviously have to improve an awful lot but that's what the four weeks are for,"
"Clare kept coming at us and they're a lot better than they're being given credit for.
"They are a very difficult team to play against but we just had that little bit of experience and were able to tap over the scores when it counted the most.
"Darran (O'Sullivan)'s goal was well-timed in the second half. But the scoreboard doesn't really reflect how difficult it was, Clare are a fine team and will be around for a few years."
There has been criticism of a Championship set-up that has allowed Kerry reach the last four with just three double-digit victories, two of which came against Clare.
But Griffin defended their path to the semi-finals and added that with a month to wait until their next trip to Dublin, Eamonn Fitzmaurice's side have no concerns of being under-cooked when facing the winners of next week's game between Dublin and Donegal.
"The scorelines we've been putting up against Tipperary and Clare are not really reflective," Griffin said. "Munster is very difficult, we see Tipperary and Clare are both contesting All-Ireland quarter-finals.
"We've put up a bit of a score today, but we've still been tested and our internal games are also very competitive. You'll be tested so much there marking Paul Geaney and James O'Donoghue, so we feel very confident in where we are at the moment.
"Whoever we play next, it'll be an All-Ireland semi-final and you'll get nothing handy. It'll be the most difficult game we've had in a while but we'll just have to drive on.
"We have four weeks and we obviously have to improve an awful lot but that's what the four weeks are for," Griffin added.
"There's areas we'll go back and look at and will be disappointed with and we'll juts have to work hard on them. Whoever it's going to be it will be a difficult test."
