“I REALLY wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Everything about Carlton is brilliant.”

Regardless of what happens this weekend and beyond, 2025 has been quite the year for Poppy Scholz.

When the highly regarded youngster was selected with pick No.6 in the 2024 Telstra AFLW Draft, all at the Blues were excited by the South Australian’s potential.

She’s delivered that in spades already in year one.

Playing every game to date with a Rising Star nomination to boot, Scholz has already emerged as a key chess piece in Mathew Buck’s side - a rapid progression for someone who was stressing as late as early August about whether or not she’d be selected in Round 1.

“I reckon I messaged Dad in week 11 of pre-season saying that I didn’t think I was going to debut in Round 1 and that I was stressed. ‘Bucky’ made a comment and I was wondering if he was saying that to solidify that he’s going to put me in the team, or that he was saying it to keep getting after it,” Scholz told Carlton Media.

“It’s been crazy, so much fun. It’s been everything and more.

“At the start of the year, I put a lot of pressure on myself to be good - with Matilda being my sister, I’ve got pretty big shoes to fill. In the back half [of the season], I’ve been finding my way a bit more… it’s been so fun, I’ve loved it.”

Seven goals in essentially her last 2.5 games of football has been another example of the instant impact that Scholz has made, but it’d be a lie if she denied that it’s all come easy for her.

Just 72 hours before kicking her second bag of three goals since her move to the forward line against GWS, there was a training session which sticks firmly in her mind.

“I’ve had the most crash outs I’ve ever had in the forward line: in training on Thursday, we were doing a drill and I was lost. I couldn’t get the ball, I didn’t know how to get the ball - when everyone was walking to get water, ‘Dal’ [Jess Dal Pos] was trying to explain something to me - and then I just burst into tears.

“Like ‘this is so hard, I don’t know how to do this’ - yeah, I lost it a little bit! But anyway, we talked through it and now I know how to lead a bit better, which is nice.”

Given the way she’s impacted in year one, it’s very easy to forget that things could’ve been very different for Scholz this year.

Born on New Year’s Eve in 2006, Scholz was only eligible for last year’s draft by a single day. Had she been born hours later, the 18 year old would’ve had to play the 365-day waiting game for her first season in the competition.

For someone who’s still finding her way, the form she’s shown in Navy Blue has been first class. She admits she may have a secret weapon alongside her - in a similar position to she is - that helps her figure things out on the fly.

That just happens to be her fellow draftee, Sophie McKay.

“Sophie is just… Sophie. She’s your biggest hype person. If you do the littlest thing, she gets around you.

“It’s so much fun playing with her. She calmed my nerves as well, because she’s just like ‘Poppy, just play footy - literally just have fun’. That’s really helped me.”

A trip west this Friday night could bring about big things for the Blues, who enter the game knowing the repercussions. Win, and a first finals series for the team since 2020. Lose, and a nervous weekend will be had, waiting for other results to fall their way.

On the other side? West Coast, who finds itself in the exact same boat.

It might be the last home-and-away game of the campaign, but it’s a final in all bar official name. In reality, finals footy has come a week early to the Blues - and that’s exciting in itself.

“We’ve spoken a lot in the last week leading into the game, and I’m sure we’ll talk about it heaps this week as well - the privilege to play in such big games, the privilege I have to be able to play in this in my first year.

“It’s pretty unreal. Playing in a game that means so much, it feels like a final.

“Everyone that comes to our games and sticks around to come see us at the fence, it’s so cool. I watched Matilda go through that in the past two years… now I’m in it, I’m in the little pen!

“It’s been unreal from the supporters and the Club, plus the Club supporting me with the move to Melbourne has been second to none. It’s really shaped me to have a good year.”