The court caught plenty of people off-guard on Thursday when it finally handed down its finding into the Woollahra Council appeal against being forced to merge with Waverley and Randwick.

In a decision that was probably widely anticipated and yet still a major blow to merger opponents, the court ruled in favour of the state government pushing ahead with its program of forced amalgamations.

That’s certainly bad news for Oberon and Cabonne, and also the timing could not have been worse.

Not only will the decision make the turkey taste a little dry for members of the anti-amalgamation groups, but it came just 24 hours after both councils had committed tens of thousands of dollars towards launching their own appeals.

Both councils had previously been given permission to hold off launching appeals so they could first see what the result was in Woollahra.

Because all the cases relied on basically the same legal argument, the state government accepted that it would be foolish for Oberon and Cabonne to commit ratepayers’ money to an appeal if they would simply learn later that Woollahra had lost.

With the extension deadline approaching, though, councillors in both Oberon and Cabonne were left with no choice but to commence their own appeals this week.

It’s ridiculous that both those appeals now seemed doomed to fail and the money set aside will be wasted – exactly the scenario all parties were trying to avoid.

The High Court looks to be the only hope for councils opposed to amalgamations to escape forced mergers, but only the bravest punter would be banking on Darryl Kerrigan-style victory at this point.

Two courts have now ruled in favour of the mergers going ahead and it’s hard to see what new arguments could now be mounted.

Even if the final result seems clear, though, there is still some time to play out in this saga.

Unless Oberon and Cabonne decide to drop their appeals, we are still looking at several months in limbo waiting for the Sword of Damocles to fall on those legal proceedings.

The new year looks set to start in exactly the same fashion as the old.