{"id":309032,"date":"2025-11-26T02:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309032\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T02:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:58:12","slug":"surreal-afl-dream-begins-for-greek-australian-draftee-blake-thredgold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/309032\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Surreal&#8217; AFL dream begins for Greek Australian draftee Blake Thredgold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of North Melbourne FC\u2019s newest draftees is a Greek Australian.<\/p>\n<p>South Australian Blake Thredgold, whose Greek on his mum\u2019s side, was drafted last week by the Kangaroos at pick No.26.<\/p>\n<p>Like others who got drafted, he was instantly jumped by family and friends when his name got called out on TV.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/r\/1Fv73hx7Ju\/<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was incredible to be surrounded by my closest friends and family and share such an exciting night with me,\u201d he tells Neos Kosmos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving all my friends jump on me when my name was called out was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-336588\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/BlakeDion1-PRINT_80363-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\"  \/>Blake with his Sturt coach Dion Shinas. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>He now gets to live out his dream of being an AFL player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s awesome, it all feels a bit surreal, I feel so lucky to have this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 194 cm key defender who wants to model his game with the likes of Darcy Moore, Harris Andrews and Josh Worrell, comes out of Sturt Football Club.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s at Sturt where one of his coaches and mentors is fellow Greek Dionisis Shinas.<\/p>\n<p>Dion tells Neos Kosmos that they would often talk about the homeland and their Greek roots.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-336589\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/BlakeNM-PRINT_80326-768x960.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"960\"  \/>Blake says there have been a lot of players he\u2019s looked up to. \u201cSome inspired me and challenged me to keep developing and improving the way I played and some helped me work on my mindset around resilience, positivity and mindfulness.\u201d Photo: North Melbourne FC\/Facebook<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA real testament to Blake, he showed his Greek fight by overcoming a broken hand this year to being drafted,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe North will look back at this pick as well as the rest of the clubs and be surprised he dropped so far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlake\u2019s parents Stella and Daryl are a great support as well also often speak of how proud of our heritage we are. Even in an Australian game we bring Greek heart and spirit! Zito i ellas!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blake\u2019s mum\u2019s parents are from Lesvos and he says he loves the Greek culture and traditions. His mum has kept them going with the family.<\/p>\n<p>And he is excited to get settled in Melbourne and see the huge Greek community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been told I have to get out to Oakleigh for a frappe, Greek food and Greek sweets. I\u2019m looking forward to it,\u201d Blake says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of North Melbourne FC\u2019s newest draftees is a Greek Australian. South Australian Blake Thredgold, whose Greek on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-309032","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309032","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=309032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}