Eamonn Fitzmaurice was delighted to finally get a win on the board at home, but knows that his Kerry side face an even bigger challenge in next weekend's league final against Dublin.
The Kingdom blew the doors off Tyrone early on in Killarney, and their seven-point margin of victory was enough to see them claim a place in next Sunday's decider as other results in Division 1 went their way.
Dublin's win over Monaghan saw them through as table-toppers, and although Kerry held Jim Gavin's champions to a draw in Killarney two weeks ago, Fitzmaurice knows a meeting at GAA headquarters is an entirely different proposition.
"I think Dublin came from behind again today to win, as they are prone to doing, but playing Dublin in a provincial venue and playing Dublin in Croke Park are two different things," Fitzmaurice told RTÉ Sport.
"That's the ultimate test really."
Kerry exploded into the game, with an early goal from wing-forward Michael Geaney setting the tone as the Kingdom took a 1-12 to 0-06 half-time lead, and boss Fitzmaurice was delighted to finally put a home win on the board after a poor start to the year at Fitzgerald Stadium.
'It's another opportunity for us to have a crack at the best team in the country' #LeagueSunday #RTEgaa pic.twitter.com/8GR0xBmXwf
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) April 2, 2017
"We got a goal early and I think from the off we meant business," he said. "We played a lot of good football. A goal can be a huge momentum swing and can give a lot of energy to the team. It was an important score, definitely.
"Every day you go out you want to play well and we were conscious that we hadn't won a home game in the league this year, so we were anxious to do that and give ourselves as good a chance as possible of getting into the league final.
"Thankfully the results went our way for that to happen."
