From Junior 'Bagger to Club best and fairest winner, Keeley Sherar has a lifelong connection to the Navy Blue.

The midfielder has been visiting IKON Park her whole life, and still sometimes can't believe she now represents the Club she grew up supporting.

Sherar, who arrived at Carlton as pick number 11 in the 2021 AFLW Draft, shone early with a Rising Star nomination in just her second game.

She then rose to new heights in 2023, earning a maiden nomination in the 2023 All-Australian squad.

The following season she won the Carlton Best and Fairest award, continuing to show her growth and development as both a player and teammate. 

"I supported Carlton from when I was born, my dad and his whole side of the family were Carlton and mum's side were Collingwood, so it was a very big rivalry within the family," she said.

"I remember coming to watch the boys play some like practice matches here, and family days.

"It's really cool to look back on and think that like this is my workplace now, I've probably never imagined that... In terms of my favourite players, Chris Judd was probably up there, he was an idol growing up for me.

"Playing for the club that you grew up supporting, it's always a little bit extra special. It obviously means a lot to play AFLW... It's a place that I love to be, and a club that I have a lot of love for."

When Sherar reflects back on her draft year, she recalls the chaos of COVID and the moment she was told she was going to be a Blue.

"My draft year was a bit interesting, it was obviously COVID, so I was at home and had one interview with Carlton, hadn't been to the club or anything," she said.

"It was kind of a shock, there were a lot of emotions, my whole family is very emotional. I was in Wear 12 at the time, so I went to school the next day and then after that came into the Club, got a tour, it was pretty awesome.

"A lot has changed like over the past five years now, third year under 'Bucky'.

"I feel like we're really starting to see everything put together on the field. Off the field we've had really good standards the past few years and we've really been building, but to finally show everyone and the fans all the hard work that we've put in, it's pretty cool."

Now five seasons on, Sherar continues to show the football community what she is capable with, most recently with a Goal of the Year nomination in the Round 3 win over Brisbane.

She wants to make her mark at the Club as she develops into a senior player, hoping to inspire her own siblings and other young players to follow in her footsteps. 

With little to no female football players to look up to growing up, she now wants to step into that role for the next generation of female footballers.

"I've got three little siblings, they all play footy and are Carlton supporters as well, they absolutely love coming to watch our games and my little sisters look up to so many of the players in our team, that's what they want to do when they grow up," she said.

"It's pretty cool to have young kids now being able to aspire to be AFLW players, when I was younger I probably didn't have that pathway to look up to. We always say you can't like be what you can't see, so I think that's really important.

"On the weekends going down to my little sister's local games is like my favourite thing to do. Seeing the U12s play some good footy, it's very exciting.

"Within the team, it's great that they (younger players) can look up to us older players, but I think I also learn a lot. A lot of them, they've grown up playing football and they're such natural footballers, so I think although like we might be older players, I feel like we're all learning off each other and really building something special together."