Kerry responded to last week's surprise Division 2 loss to Donegal by edging out Meath 1-20 to 0-20 in Tralee.
The result opens up the promotion race with four teams now on four points, two off early leaders Down.
The visitors started in fine fashion and were 0-05 to 0-01 ahead inside 10 minutes, but scores from Luke Rochford, Podge Boyle and Oisin Maunsell kept Kerry in touch.
Indeed, a trio of scorers from Rochford, Boyle and Walsh put Kerry ahead for the first time in the 20th minute as they led 0-08 to 0-07.
Boyle found the net soon after but with Jack Regan proving accurate from frees, the sides went off at the interval level – 1-09 to 0-12.
Boyle continued to rack up the scores to give Kerry some daylight, but Regan was ensuring they couldn’t kill the contest.
Another Regan free brought Meath within two with 10 minutes to play, but Kerry saw it out with Luke Crowley and Sean Brosnan grabbing late scores to seal the points.
In Division 4, pace-setters Louth racked up a healthy 0-30 tally as they got the better of Lancashire.
Conor Murphy, Thomas McCreesh, Peter Fortune and Darren Geoghegan all scored heavily in the 0-30 to 2-16 win.
There was also a 1-18 to 0-16 win for Leitrim over Monaghan in a game played in Longford.
The Oriel County were the brighter side in the first half with Niall Arthur scoring freely to give them a 0-11 to 0-10 half-time lead.
The game turned on a Joe Murray goal in the 57th minute and with Philip Burgess also proflific in front of the posts, Leitrim were able to see out the game.
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