These Waterford intermediate teams surely played out the latest county final of 2016

The Christmas lights are going up on over-eager houses across the nation. The Coca Cola advert has been out for weeks at this stage.

And still. And still, two proud Waterford club sides had to line out to play their county's intermediate football county final. Sunday, November 27. This is surely the latest county final to be played in the country. Surely? Geraldine's faced off against Portlaw in the Waterford IFC final and both sides were thankful the cold snap from last week had flitted off across the Irish Sea.

Geraldine's player Edmond Donovan contacted us ahead of the final to ask us if his side, and Portlaw, were the last two up for title decision in Ireland.

He kindly got back in touch with us today to let us know the "gutting stuff". Portlaw had beaten then 2-4 to 0-8 to claim the silverware. He commented:

'It would be interesting to know if there's any more county finals to be played. Think the Waterford county board have a lot to answer for, to be playing county finals the last week of November.'

Donovan certainly has a point. Spare a thought for some club players, senior and underage, that are already back and focusing on 2017 glory: https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/802973865597169667 And spare a thought for Ciarán McKearney, an U16 footballer that contacted us in exasperation as training for next season begins TONIGHT. You're not the only one, lad. Dick Clerkin makes his GAA Hour debut to talk about a wonderful career and argue passionately with Colm Parkinson over Sky Sports GAA. Subscribe here on iTunes.