{"id":228637,"date":"2025-10-20T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228637\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T23:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:49:08","slug":"thredgold-excited-for-an-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228637\/","title":{"rendered":"Thredgold “excited for an adventure”"},"content":{"rendered":"

STURT talent and South Australian vice-captain Sophie Thredgold<\/a> would pack her bags in an instant if it meant relocating to chase her AFL Women\u2019s dream. The Double Blues star has been grateful for the opportunities she has been afforded through the state league and South Australian Under 18s program in 2025 and after receiving a State Draft Combine invite, is ready to take the next step.<\/p>\n

Thredgold \u2013 who is no relation to Sturt men\u2019s player and fellow AFL Draft Combine invitee Blake \u2013 said she has \u201c100 per cent\u201d thought about relocating to play at the elite level.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking to a few different people, they ask the question \u2018would you be willing to go interstate?\u2019 and I\u2019d absolutely be willing to, chasing a dream,\u201d Thredgold said. \u201cI honestly would be willing to do anything so definitely. Excited for an adventure as well, it would be nice to branch out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hard-running defender who has also spent time on-ball said it had been a long year, but she \u201cdefinitely got the opportunities\u201d that she had been gunning for at the start of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said at the start of the year I was looking to broaden my capabilities in the midfield, show what I\u2019m capable of and the work that I\u2019ve put in over the past two years,\u201d Thredgold said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there were things that I could have done different or changed, but I put out what I wanted to put out, maybe not necessarily showing my strengths such as my speed or my strength in the way that I wanted to, but I think I\u2019m pretty happy with how I went this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those opportunities was the South Australian vice-captaincy, and stepping up as acting captain in the absence of the injured Imogen Trengove<\/a> for the Croweaters\u2019 final game of the national carnival. For Thredgold, the role showed her a \u201cshift in mindset\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t \u2018how can I help myself play better?\u2019 it was \u2018how can I encourage my team?\u2019 not that its not like that all the time, but it shifted to a more team-first definitely focus which is something that I try to implement all the time,\u201d Thredgold said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut just as a player not having a huge title like \u2018Imi\u2019, it was just different but I think it was a huge opportunity and it showed what I\u2019ve built up over the past couple of years in the program as well which was really, really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

That role helped improve Thredgold\u2019s communication throughout the course of the season, with that aspect of her game being one of her biggest improvements, alongside her strength and speed, the latter of which was on display at the State Draft Combine.<\/p>\n

Upon receiving the invite to the Draft Combine, Thredgold said it was a \u201creally exciting\u201d moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been something I\u2019ve been reaching towards since I started playing footy when I found out this is a potential pathway for me and it was really exciting,\u201d she said. \u201cJust coming into this doing all the preparation I can, all the work and controlling all I can control. At the end of the day I don\u2019t know what is going to happen, but being here is amazing, I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get here, so its pretty nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

While her focus now turns to Year 12, completing exams and looking to get into university through the exercise science or physiotherapy pathway, Thredgold said she was not entirely sure what she would do so she\u2019d \u201csee where the wind blows me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust focusing on school and making sure I can get that straight, in case the draft doesn\u2019t go the way that I want it to,\u201d Thredgold said. \u201cTrying to get into uni and studying. I\u2019m not sure exactly what I want to do yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for on-field, the Sturt prospect is continuing to develop her skill in preparation of a big preseason be it back at the Double Blues, or hopefully, at an AFLW club.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely something that few people have flagged throughout my journey, coaches,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s always something that I\u2019ve been looking to improve, and I\u2019ve been slowly working into it, but it\u2019s just repeated practice as well that I need to keep doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now it is a little wait until December 15 when Thredgold will get some more certainty on her future and what the next \u201cbig adventure\u201d holds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STURT talent and South Australian vice-captain Sophie Thredgold would pack her bags in an instant if it meant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,138114,138115,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-228637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-imogen-trengove","14":"tag-sophie-thredgold","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}