This week Bluffer's guidelooks at The Senior Football Championship

What is it?It's May and that means Longford and Westmeath must be ready for their, by now, annual clash in the football championship.

Along with Leitrim's semi-regular scare in New York, next weekend will witness the first blows (and, yes, we mean blows) of the 2008 championship - the premier competition for the most popular sport on the island.

So what do I need to know?Just say Kerry if you're asked who you think will claim the Sam Maguire - statistically, you've almost a one-in-three chance of being correct. Though, realistically, it's surely even more likely than that.

Just don't go for Kilkenny - who, once again, will be the only county in Ireland that does not enter the senior football championship.

In fairness, Gaelic football does come pretty far down the list of most popular sports in the hurling stronghold - just after Wood chopping, Connect Four and Cheese-rolling, but (for obvious reasons) before Elephant polo.

So what happens first?It's the time of year when Dublin fans look again for the scarves and hats they fired under the stairs the previous August, when Kerry supporters yawn, and when the fans in many other counties convince themselves that this is going to be their year. Unfortunately, of course, it isn't.

Such is the standard of the Munster championship that - unlike the other three provincial championships - only the final itself will be televised live. (We're going to go out on a limb here and predict a Kerry v Cork decider).

Dublin have made the Leinster championship all their own in recent seasons - and we mean that, as in, all they own.

And the Connacht champions have chosen Division Four of the National League for 2009 and, because of that, Sligo will have no backdoor afforded to them if they trip up against London (which they won't) or Mayo (which they will) in the early rounds this summer.

Which leaves the Ulster competition as the most unpredictable, with no one quite sure how many players will be sent off when Donegal meet Derry and Tyrone play Down.

And after that?The rules of the All-Ireland football championship, from the quarter-final stage on, are very simple - teams try in turn to stop Kerry from winning the Sam Maguire. Sometimes it works, these are called "bad years for Kerry". And sometimes it doesn't, these are "good years for Kerry".

So worth watching?We love it really, of course. And so, apparently, do the weather gods. Though that won't stop the gods from placing an insufferable loudmouth directly behind us at every game. There's always one (if you don't agree, it may just mean you are the loudmouth).

And this year of course, the International Rules series is probably going to bring the curtain down on the season, and show us all once again that, in comparison, Gaelic football isn't actually that violent at all.