Port Adelaide rising star Matilda Scholz on embracing attention, her famous sporting family and playing with her partner at the Power
She’s only 19, but Port Adelaide’s Matilda Scholz is already the next big thing in AFLW. She chats to SIMEON THOMAS-WILSON about embracing attention, her rise to stardom and her gifted sporting family.
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It’s just her second year in the AFLW but Matilda Scholz is trending towards star status in the league, if the 19-year-old isn’t there already.
But the Power young gun isn’t overwhelmed one bit by the hype and attention.
“It’s pretty funny, I’ve always wanted to be kind of famous and now I feel like I am a bit so it is kind of cool,” she tells The Advertiser while sitting at the interchange bench at Alberton Oval.
Growing up the plan was to do this by becoming either an actor or model.
Instead it is as one of the most promising players in the AFLW, so much so that the ‘GOAT’ Erin Phillips declared that the Port Adelaide ruck will “go onto do incredible things” and she has “only just brushed the surface of how good she can be”.
All-Australian ruckman Jeff White says Scholz can “create a legacy” in the AFLW for the position.
“She is a player you can mould your team around, people always talk about the spine and she is someone who you can map your team around,” he said.
“Someone who can get their hands on the ball, and give first option to the mids, with 6-6-6 now that becomes really damaging.
“She can break lines, she can really take off and use her pace. She is adapting and using her strengths of her height and athleticism.
“It is wonderful to see.”
Scholz is welcoming the hype.
“It is really cool, especially coming from Erin,” she said.
“It is just really cool that people are saying that stuff about me and I just hope I can live up to it.
“I was at the GWS game (the last home game before finals) when I wasn’t playing and we had a lap of honour around the oval and on the way back we had to walk around the perimeter to get back to our seats.
Here’s a glimpse of what Matilda Scholz can do against #AFLW opposition, for all you @pafc_w fans. 1v1 against Leah Cutting on Saturday ⬇ï¸
— Michael Alvaro (@MichaelTAlvaro) March 2, 2023
🎥: @SANFLpic.twitter.com/IU80w3CIj5
“And I kept getting stopped, obviously it’s a Port home game so people will know who I am but it was just really cool to get stopped and asked for a photo or signature.
“But even like I was in North Adelaide the other day and a little kid was like, ‘are you Matilda Scholz’, which was really cool.”
It is easy to see why Scholz is getting the attention.
Tall, blonde and with a beaming smile the Power ruck stands out on an AFLW field immediately.
And that’s before you watch her play.
At 183cm Scholz might have the height of a ruck but has the athleticism, mobility and skills at ground-level of a midfielder.
So far this season she has averaged 14 disposals, 4.5 clearances, 21.5 hitouts and 4.5 hitouts to advantage, meaning in just her second year Scholz was named in the All-Australian squad.
“I guess there is a bit of a stigma around rucks that they are a bit slow and not very agile but I think that is changing, especially in the W side of things,” she said.
“There’s quite a few rucks who are super agile, getting to ground level, following up their work really well which is cool to see and it is kind of scary.
“I mean that’s my competition.”
THEN, there is that mark.
On a Thursday night at Alberton last month Scholz took a grab against Collingwood that not only caught the attention of the AFLW, but the wider footy community.
Matilda Scholz takes an absolute hanger! ✈ï¸#AFLWPowerPiespic.twitter.com/0uKrDUfoH1
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) October 10, 2024
Unsurprisingly nominated for mark of the year, she could come away with $50,000 for the high-flying grab.
“There was a lot of coverage around that mark, which is really cool,” she said.
“And a lot of people have definitely come up to me and said “oh good mark” so thanks.
“I’ve said it a few times you can see on my face as I’ve come down I was like jaw on floor, I was shocked that I actually stuck it.
“I’ve been working a lot on my marking because I’ve wanted to be a target on the ground, someone who can take good contested marks.
“I think it is sort of coming along but I think that mark was good because it was like yes I can take a really good contested mark.”
But while Scholz has reached new heights in 2024, her season started slowly.
Her debut season was always going to be a hard act to follow, she played 10 games, averaged 21.1 hit outs (top ten in the league), four tackles and 3.2 clearances a game and finished top three in the Power’s best and fairest.
Her opening game of the 2024 campaign, a Showdown, was one she wasn’t happy with.
“I felt like year one was nice, I didn’t really have any pressure or expectations going into it and I just sort of played the footy I wanted to play,” she said.
“But I felt like this year was a bit more difficult, I didn’t play that well in the first round because I think I put too much pressure on myself and was really wanting to back up the year I had last year.
“So I think as the season has gone it has gotten a lot better and I’ve been able to feel more comfortable and play the game I want to play.
“I think it was just literally playing games, I started to feel more comfortable with the more games I played this year, which I think really helped a lot.”
Before she started playing footy, “I was about 11 or 12 and just went out to Mitcham Hawks”, Scholz wanted to be a netball player for Australia.
That is not a surprise.
Her mum Peta Squire is a former Australian netballer and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, one of the best the country has produced.
“It’s been really, really interesting to see how far women’s sport has come through mum,” Scholz said.
“Obviously her playing for Australia back in like the 90s, and seeing like or hearing about the hours they trained and how much they got paid and stuff like that.
“It’s just it’s so incredible to see how far it’s come, and it makes us both really happy.”
While Scholz quickly put the netball dream on the backburner after falling in love with footy instantly younger sister Poppy has been juggling the two.
Considered to be one of the standout prospects in the upcoming AFLW draft, Poppy has also held a SASI scholarship and been named in the Australian under-19 squad for netball.
While a little shorter than her older sister at 179cm, Poppy is considered to be more versatile.
“She is still doing both (sports),” Scholz said.
“I think if she just gets drafted that will take up most of her time so I don’t think she will actually have a choice to make I think it will be what just what she has to do.
“So it will be interesting to see, but she is looking good for the draft.
“She is a good player, she started playing on the wing at Glenelg and then moved to half-back and she is really offensive off half-back which is cool to see.
“She is athletic and tall and can also get down on ground level, which is nice, so she is just really versatile.”
Should Scholz be united with her sister at the Power, it would further entrench the club as a special place for her.
Not only do her and gun midfielder Abbey Dowrick form a formidable partnership on the field in the middle of the ground and at stoppages for the Power but the two are also in a relationship off the field.
“It’s pretty normal to like everyone in the team I guess,” Scholz said.
“I came in last year and then we sort of started dating last year so yeah haven’t really known much different.
“And yeah it is sort of that’s how it is in the competition I guess a bit, which is actually really nice and it is cool playing with Abbey.
“She knows when I am feeling a bit down and she knows how to lift me up and I know how to lift her up as well and it is just good to be able to talk to someone who knows what is going on.
“It’s really cool to have things like Pride Round where you can actually be yourself and in this competition you can be whoever you want to be and love whoever you want to love, which I think is amazing.
“And there’s not really any Judgement within the competition, which is so cool and I think it is just getting everyone else, like outside of the competition, on board.”
You can bet on Scholz being a big part of the competition, on and off the field, going forward.
Originally published as Port Adelaide rising star Matilda Scholz on embracing attention, her famous sporting family and playing with her partner at the Power
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