Defending champions Kerry produced a second-half fightback to overcome Derry and book a place in the All Ireland final against Dublin.
Trailing for large parts of the game, Kerry rallied in the closing stages, outscoring Derry by five points to one in the last five minutes to turn a two-point deficit into a 1-17 to 1-15 victory.
Kerry had not scored for 17 minutes when Seanie O'Shea pointed a free on 65 minutes to reduce the arrears to one point before David Clifford drew the sides level less than a minute later.
With Derry noticeably tiring, there was only ever going to be one winner from there, with Stephen O'Brien, Clifford, and O'Shea scoring in quick succession to give Kerry an unassailable lead.
The general consensus coming into Sunday's semi-final was that Derry would need goals if they were going to shock Kerry, and they got one after just six minutes when Gareth McKinless fired to the net after Brendan Rogers had seen his shot saved.
However, Kerry scored a goal of their own within 35 seconds of Derry's three-pointer, with Gavin White palming to the net after a well-worked move.
Derry were not to be discouraged, however, and drove at the Kerry defense in the early stages, establishing a two-point lead after 15 minutes.
With Clifford in flying form at one end and Derry's Shane McGuigan in scintillating form at the other, both sides went to toe-to-toe in a thrilling opening half and found themselves level at 1-06 apiece after 26 minutes.
Then came a key moment when Kerry's Diarmuid O'Connor was black-carded for pulling down Rogers, leaving Kerry with 14 men for the remaining 10 minutes of the first half.
Derry took full advantage, first pointing through Rogers before extending their lead through Ciaran McFaul.
With a man advantage, the Ulster champions consistently cut through the Kerry defense and deservedly went in with a 1-11 to 1-08 lead at the break.
They were far less efficient after the interval, with Kerry scoring the opening two points to reduce the deficit to one point.
It took seven minutes for Derry to register their first score of the half when Conor Doherty curled over a brilliant score to push Derry's lead out to two.
Kerry eventually leveled matters through Clifford (free) and O'Shea and seemed poised to take control of the game in the final 20 minutes.
Derry, however, rallied once more and moved into a two-point lead through McFaul and McGuigan, although they crucially missed two excellent goal chances, with Kerry goalkeeper Shane Ryan saving brilliantly from McKinless.
With Kerry looking short of ideas, it looked like those two spurned goal chances would not prove costly for Derry, but the concession of two easy frees in the 65th minute cost Derry dearly and gave Kerry a chance to draw level once more.
They didn't look back this time, pushing up on the Odhran Lynch kick-out and suffocating Derry in possession.
With Derry clearly suffering from fatigue, Kerry raced into a three-point lead as the game entered injury time.
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Needing a goal to force extra time, Derry won a late free, but McGuigan's attempt to drop the ball into the square was over-hit and dropped over the bar for a point.
With that miscalculated free went Derry's slim hope of a last-gasp equalizer and Kerry held on for a place in the All Ireland final against Dublin on July 30.
The sides last met in the All Ireland semi-final last year, with Kerry winning by one point thanks to a spectacular late free from Seanie O'Shea.
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