Why The Block co-host Shelley Craft is getting 'very honest' with teams on the show in 2022

Shelley Craft has been offering Block teams motivational support and advice in her role as mentor and The Block co-host for 15 seasons now.

Usually when she dishes out her words of wisdom during her weekly walkarounds with Scotty, her feedback is more of a gentle suggestion that contestants only sometimes take on board.

But in the 2022 season of the show, Shelley is taking a more direct approach with her advice, while still bringing some light relief.

“I’m getting more forceful in my old age, I believe. I’m not being quite as cryptic in my advice as I was perhaps in the early series, that comes with age and experience and perhaps just plain old frustration,” she told 9Entertainment.

• The Block 2022 listings are now live, and updated weekly. See them here.

“But I’m very honest with the contestants this year, as in, ‘You’re not listening to us. We’re telling you the same thing every week, and we’re still not seeing the fact that you’re tuning in’.

“I do take my role as mentor as seriously as I take my role of bringing a little bit of fun and life to the week as well.”

While Shelley admits they say The Block is bigger every year, she thinks the Tree Change season is genuinely “next level”.

There will still be jaw-dropping renovations, beautiful interiors, inspiring contestant journeys and of course, the inevitable reality TV drama, but the move to the country means the show will also have a fresh feel to it. That’s because the five houses are on 10 acres each so they don’t cross paths as much.

“I think the exciting thing about it is that little bit of a change, the fact that the contestants are further apart, we see a lot more of the relationships between the couples themselves,” Shelley revealed.

“That’s what every Aussie mum and dad who is renovating experiences, there are trying times between you as a couple and the decision making. [As opposed to] what we’ve experienced in the past with The Block you know, the war between the neighbours.”

Of course the huge size of the properties the teams have to renovate is only part of the challenge, they’ve also got to do it in the same time-frame as usual and with the same budget.

There’s also an unbelievable amount of mud that never seems to let up.

“I’ve never experienced mud quite like it. I was a horse rider in my youth, and I’ve stomped around paddocks all my life. I have never known mud to stick so much… It’s just the most incredible mud I’ve ever come across in my life,” Shelley laughed.

Mud aside, the idea of a tree change is one a lot of Australians have not only dreamt about, but embarked on themselves. The concept became a big real estate trend over the past couple of years when many people started working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

But Shelley made a tree change well before that when she moved to Byron Bay about 13 to 14 years ago, so she knows why the idea is so appealing to so many.

“To see that The Block was doing the same was pretty exciting for me, because I know all the benefits of living out of a city, and taking more time for yourself and fresh air,” she said.

“We know real estate-wise across Australia, how much we have seen the growth of regional areas over the last couple of years. Being in property here in Byron, it’s always been our market here, people coming out of the city, wanting a quieter life… more space, more time, no traffic.

“I think that’s sort of grown and grown and grown, and it is really exciting for Australia, that transition perhaps back to reinventing and re-energising our regional towns, and I like to think The Block might [play a part in] that as well.”

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This article was originally published by Nine.com.au. Reproduced with permission.