Eagle-eyed viewers of The Block are waiting for one team to be “called out” over some sneaky behaviour they claim hasn’t been allowed in previous seasons of the show.
The team in question is Perth couple Han and Can – Hannah “Han” Thetford, 29, and Candace “Can” Wood, 31 – who have been benefiting from the advice of Han’s dad over the phone.
On one memorable occasion, Han called her dad about floorplan drawings after struggling with measurements.
“I was supposed to make the decision yesterday at Freedom, and I just wasn’t comfortable with making the decision because it was sprung on us… There is pressure, they’re asking for them [the flooplans] so I do need to get that in today,” Han, a geologist, explained to the cameras.
“My dad, he’s always got a really good opinion – as in he knows building code – so I always just like his opinion on certain things and whether it works or not,” she continued.
Footage showed Han on the phone with her dad, with him suggesting to her, “Why don’t you go off that plan that I gave you and make them into cavity walls?”
“Can you just draw that then and send it through to me?” Han asked.
“Jesus, I’ve just gone to work,” her dad replied.
“Yeah, I know,” Han told him, before asking if he could “translate the measurements”.
“I’ll just draw what I’ve got here,” her dad replied. “It’s easier.”
Foreman Dan gave his verdict on what was going on in Han and Can’s camp.
“So three hours ago, we asked Han if she could get these drawings in. 10 minutes later, she was up there marking it all out with Benny the Builder. Great. They’re making progress. “
“But then she’s asked her dad to draw it up instead of her drawing it up, so I’m confused why that’s happened.”
“I did draw it,” Han insisted to Foreman Dan when questioned. “I just like him to look at it. Just to make sure it’s – with his building code knowledge – I didn’t want to, like, bother anyone.”
But fans of the show have taken to Reddit to question whether the behaviour is a double standard, and in contravention of The Block rules.
“I’m waiting for her to be called out for involving her dad,” one viewer shared on the platform.
“Since when can contestants get family help? A few years ago, a team did that and got into trouble.”
The contestants in question on that occasion were Steph and Gian, who competed in Season 19 of The Block, which aired in 2023.
Accusations of rule-breaking abounded when Steph’s dad Nick, a qualified builder, stepped onto the site in Week 1 to help with their bathroom construction during a tricky time.
Steph and Gian faced backlash from the other teams, who claimed it went against Block rules, which stated anyone working on site had to be inducted for safety reasons and paid minimum wages.
“If he hasn’t been inducted … and if he’s installing a shower screen … that’s cheating,” competitor Eliza said at the time.
“We’re not cheaters,” Steph later insisted in an interview with New Idea.
“Once it was brought to our attention [Dad] wasn’t inducted, we admitted it’s a technicality we should have picked up on. We apologised for that, but we were always going to pay him.”
In the same interview, Steph admitted she’d felt “attacked” by the other teams.
“It says a lot about the people who talk to everyone else about it as opposed to coming straight to us,” she said.
Gian agreed: “We felt blindsided. Everyone was in on it except for us.”
See inside Han and Can’s house on The Block here.
