TOM BLAMIRES still needs to clean out his desk inside Collingwood. He hasn't returned to the KGM Centre since his life altered course on Wednesday, but he will see plenty of familiar faces in Ballarat when he plays for North Melbourne against his now former employer on Sunday. 

The 23-year-old left two football clubs simultaneously this week to join a new one when the Kangaroos signed him as a rookie ahead of the pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP) deadline on Monday: Frankston, where he played in the VFL, and Collingwood, where he worked in the commercial department. 

Blamires met with a handful of AFL clubs after winning the prestigious Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal, but his name wasn't read out at the national or rookie drafts. When the SSP window opened at the end of November, a trial didn't present before Christmas. No offers materialised in January, either. 

Then North Melbourne list manager Brady Rawlings called him out of the blue on February 6, almost a month after Jackson Archer had torn his anterior cruciate ligament. Blamires, finally, had a chance to audition. Sturt premiership player Zac Becker was also invited to trial for the final spot at Arden Street. 

In an SSP twist on Wednesday, Blamires attracted interest from another club. West Coast met with the VFL star late last year and contemplated selecting him as a rookie. But Fred Rodriquez slid, so they went with the local gun instead. When Noah Long suffered a season-ending knee injury, the Eagles explored a move for Blamires again. 

But North Melbourne had seen enough across the past few weeks and didn't want to let him out of the building. It got the deal done on Wednesday, signing Blamires inside Alastair Clarkson's office after a meeting with the coach, GM Todd Viney and recruiting boss Will Thursfield. 

"I've always had belief in myself, but you never actually know until you get told, so when I finally found out, it was crazy, to be honest," Blamires told AFL.com.au after signing with North Melbourne this week. 

"I then had to roam around the club for a couple of hours pretending nothing had happened and just to act normal. So it was a bit of a weird couple of hours, to be honest.

"Todd got up in front of the whole team and the staff before the end of the day and announced it in front of the whole group, which was a bit embarrassing, but pretty cool and something that I'll never forget, that's for sure."

Blamires thought the ship had sailed on the SSP by January. He wasn't aware players could still trial and be signed through to the deadline on March 2. But the half-back had put his head down at Frankston over the pre-season and was ready when Rawlings called.

"To be honest, I didn't even know that it was still a possibility that SSP trials could go to that late," Blamires said. "I got a call on a Friday morning when I was on a morning walk, just as I normally do, and Brady called me saying, ‘We'd love to have you down to train for the next couple of weeks'.  

"I was shocked because I thought that the SSP period might have already closed; I didn't really know too much about it, so I didn't think that that was still an opportunity. But I knew I was ready when he said it and I was excited to get to the club."

Blamires had to dust himself off in December. Last winter he reignited his AFL dream in his first season at Frankston to put his name on the radar of recruiters. The night he collected 44 touches against Jordan De Goey and the Magpies' VFL team generated widespread attention, given he worked in corporate sales at Collingwood.

Then he played on Western Bulldogs midfielder Adam Treloar in a final and the veteran midfielder messaged him in the aftermath to tell him he thought he had AFL traits. But despite positive signs from West Coast and Geelong – two clubs that have had success with mature-age recruits – before the draft, nothing materialised. 

"I was pretty flat after that, but at the same time, I have faced that many setbacks," Blamires said. "I've had so many setbacks as a 23-year-old and so many times where I've had the hope and it hasn't happened, so it was just another setback that I've faced. I knew that I'd bounce back. Even though I was flat at the moment, I knew deep down that I'd be able to bounce back. It was more doing that as soon as possible rather than dwelling on it longer than it needed to be."

The burden of the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal streak didn't help. Blamires was named the best young player in the VFL last year and the previous 18 recipients had all graduated to the AFL, including Michael Barlow, Kane Lambert, Luke Ryan, Michael Hibberd and Bayley Fritsch. Now the run has been extended to 19, but for months it hung over his head.

"Quite a few people were coming up to me being like, 'Oh, you've broken the streak, you've not done the spot,' and it obviously was a bit flattening to hear. But the main thing I've always gone back to is having belief in myself through all those setbacks," he said.

"I felt the weight (of the streak) obviously a little bit, I'm not going to lie, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really mean anything to me in terms of it's not going to change the way that I was going to play anyway or change the way that my teammates saw me and the people that actually cared about saw me. But obviously that higher expectation was a little daunting."

Collingwood helped Blamires both with his corporate career and football. Head of commercial sales Brendan Chambers allowed him to leave work early for training or to meet with clubs. CEO Craig Kelly met with him after he didn't get drafted and helped him get over the disappointment, while EGM Charlie Gardiner and recruiters Shane O'Bree and Shannon Collins provided a sounding board.

"They were actually really good to me. Shannon and Shane always had great advice, not so much what they look for or what I should be doing more, just advice in general in terms of how I can approach things," he said.

"'Ned' (Kelly) sat me down on the first day I was back in the office after I didn't get picked up and said to me, ‘You'll be all right, just keep finding your way', and a 10-minute conversation like that really kind of changed my views on things. It's pretty cool when you get people like that in your corner, even though they don't really have much to do with my footy career, but they don't have to do those little things."

But without Jackson Kornberg in his corner, Blamires doesn't believe he would now be on an AFL list. They first crossed paths at the Sandringham Dragons in the Talent League, before reuniting at Frankston last season after Kornberg returned to Victoria, following two years as a development coach at Gold Coast.

"He's been the reason why I've got here, to be honest," he said. "The belief that he's shown to me and the opportunity is the reason why I've started my footy career and then continued to keep on persevering. His relationships with not just me, but with people in general is the reason why he is such a good coach and the reason why Frankston have been so successful in the last couple of years. He is not just a coach, but a mentor and a mate. It's crazy how much he's done for me; there's no way I'd be where I am without him. I can't even put into words how much he's done for me. I'm just grateful to have people like that in my corner that have the confidence in me."

Kornberg sent him a text on Thursday morning of a screenshot from 2022 after Blamires was cut from the Sandringham Zebras after his first VFL pre-season. He played for Old Brighton in the VAFA instead that year, before earning a spot at Trevor Barker Oval the following year. Nothing has ever come easy for the 181cm defender-midfielder who will now wear No.39 for North Melbourne in 2026. 

"I've been trying to prove people wrong a lot of in the last few years, and it's just something that spurred me on. It's pretty humbling to see where it's taken me," he said.

"But at the same time, I want this to be a start of the journey, I don't want this to be a one-year thing and I'm back playing VFL or local footy, even though I've enjoyed it so much. I want it to be a long career, which hopefully I can make that happen. That's the end goal."

Blamires now has a contract at North Melbourne in 2026 and a chance on Sunday to book a round one debut against Port Adelaide on March 15. Then on Monday, he will need to head to Collingwood to finally empty his desk. His time in the Magpies' commercial team is over.