SPEAKING the morning after one of the biggest nights of her young footy career, the excitement of one of Carlton’s newest stars Poppy Scholz had not dissipated.

“It still hasn’t really sunk in though to be honest,” Scholz said.

“I’m just kind of caught up in it all and still waiting to feel like I’m actually going to play for Carlton next year.”

Scholz did not have any idea that it would be Carlton that would ultimately take her, and was certainly nice reward after stress she had last week.

“No, I actually had no idea,” she said. “I called my manager on Friday night, stressing to him about not getting picked up, and then got picked by Carlton and pick six which I was shocked by.”

Poppy is not the first Scholz to make it to the AFLW, with sister Matilda coming off a multi accolade winning season. But, the fact that Matilda had made it to the AFLW and was already doing so well did not add any pressure onto her younger sister.

“We’re really different players, so I think I’m just really proud of all her successes and then hope to forge my own path and see what that looks like for me,” Scholz explained.

Although moving interstate, Scholz will have a familiar face in Melbourne after Glenelg teammate Violet Patterson was drafted to Collingwood. But, as Scholz explained when asked about how she felt seeing Patterson drafted to her club’s biggest rival, she had no idea of what it truly meant.

“Well, to be honest, I didn’t really know that there were rivals,” she said. “I was just so keen for her to get picked up because I know she was a father daughter there, but then I think I was a bit unsure for a bit.”

Football is not the only potential elite sporting career path for the talented youngster, with Scholz also progressing well in her netball career and has been making national Under 21 squads for a few years now.

But for the moment, Scholz is not sure how her netball career will look moving forward now that she has made it to the AFLW.

“I don’t know, I’ll have to see what Carlton wants me to do, Hopefully I can fit netball in, but if not, then that’s for discussion,” Scholz said.

“Obviously footy is the priority so I just want to be the best I can be at that and then see when it fits in and yeah, try and keep the door open.”

She is not the only person to have faced this dilemma, with Scholz’s Australian Under 21 teammate and West Coast Eagle Georgie Cleaver also a talented dual-sports athlete. But Scholz said the pair have not really chatted about managing two elite sports careers at the same time.

“We spoke a bit last year, but no, I’ve kind of just been watching her TikToks to keep up to date with her life,” Scholz said with a laugh.