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Calling the eventual winners of the Mayo GAA Intermediate Football Championship is a fool's errand most years and this year is no different.

The hardest thing to predict before the start of any championship season is who is going to win the intermediate title.

The battle to win the Sweeney Cup and progress to the senior championship next year moves up a gear this weekend when the quarter-finals of the Mayo intermediate championship takes place.

It just wasn’t to be for Ardnaree in Croke Park on Sunday, the Mayo champions had blitzed their way through the club championship in Mayo and on into Connacht, but on the day they just came up against a better team, despite their best efforts.

On Sunday afternoon one of the greats of Ardnaree's past Fr Peter Quinn will be laid to rest in St Patrick's cemetery in Kilglass. The current crop of Ardnaree players will be hoping that by the time Fr Quinn, who won All Ireland medals with Mayo in 1950 and 51, is laid to rest they will have followed in his footsteps and walked the staircase in Croke Park and become All Ireland champions.

“It’s a long way from the hill in Ardnaree to the hill in Croke Park” said Ardnaree chairman Johnny O’Malley on the field in Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon on Sunday afternoon as the faithful from the hamlet near Ballina soaked in the celebrations. They had just witnessed their side grind out a historic victory over Rockcorry from Monaghan in the All Ireland semi-final and book their place in Croke Park on Saturday fortnight where they will face Templenoe from Kerry in the final.

On Sunday in Carrick on Shannon Ardnaree will face into their eighth championship game this season, and when the full time whistle goes, Declan O'Dea's men will have left everything they have on the pitch to make sure there's a ninth one coming up next month in Croke Park.

Ardnaree have had four weeks to drink in the fact that they had finally got back to the promised land of the intermediate championship for next year following their victory over Killala in the Mayo Junior Championship final on October 18. The withdrawal of the Leitrim representatives from the provincial competition gave Ardanree a free pass into Sunday's Connacht final. The form that Ardnaree have shown this year, you would have to assume that they would have booked that passage themselves with ease if they had to play a semi-final, but that is irrevelent and all that matters is the here and now and on Sunday, the Galway junior champions Clifden come calling to MacHale Park.

Sunday’s senior final between neighbours Breaffy and Castlebar is likely to be an enthralling affair and I cannot wait. It is bizarre that the junior, intermediate, and senior finals were/are all local derbies in 2015. There are some big hitters squaring up to each other on Sunday which will make it compelling viewing. Aidan O'Shea has bulldozed Breaffy and Mayo to victory in many games this year so of course the big talking point is what Castlebar will do to negate his effectiveness.

When a game ends with such a comprehensive a gap between the sides, all there is to do is to sit back and marvel at the performance of the victors. For Ardnaree, it’s been a long 44 year wait since they last claimed the Mayo junior title. There have been plenty of close misses over the years since then, no more than in the past decade where they have had to head back to their enclave on the north side of the Moy after tasting defeat in the 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 finals.