I thought it curious last Saturday The Age ran with a front-page lead story on the possibility of an Irish-theme team being established in Sydney. The story was also prominent on Fairfax websites.
Today there is a story online, which is far more realistic, headlined West Sydney ground zero.
It talks about building a broad-based supporter base from scratch for a new team. This paragraph is nestled in the story:
Less than a week after it was reported that the league was considering a proposal to create an Irish-aligned club — known as the Celtics — that idea has been effectively abandoned.
Last Saturday’s “exclusive” front page was a massive beat-up then. I don’t blame Caroline Wilson for writing it, that’s her job.
But the editor’s job is to sift through the copy and make an informed judgment about whether the story has legs and whether it deserves to be on the front page.
Reading back through the original report (sorry, no link) there is little of substance, just confirmed speculation.
“It’s been put to us and while it’s not without its issues it’s something we’ll explore,” AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was actually quoted saying: “To call this embryonic is an understatement.”
I think it was probably something tossed around in a brainstorming session, or over a few beers after work on a Friday night.
The concept was never at a serious stage of development and was never likely to work.
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