Matilda Scholz is a towering presence.
At 189 centimetres she’s the third-tallest player in the AFLW.
Throw in a ruthless streak on the footy field – and she can spell trouble for opponents.
Former Port Adelaide coach Lauren Arnell recalled having to step in at training to separate Scholz and her veteran teammate Gemma Houghton.
Arnell had encouraged the players to bring their physicality to the session. Scholz started throwing her giant athletic frame around and Houghton took exception. Just as the scuffle began to escalate, Arnell rushed in to pull them apart. Neither was about to take a backward step.
The coach described the fiery wrestle as a positive moment because the players found a greater level to challenge each other within training. It sparked an eight-game winning streak that led the Power all the way to the 2024 preliminary final.
Scholz’s mum Peta has also had some nervous moments watching her eldest daughter play.
“She was so much taller than anyone else when she was younger, and all the coaches were
yelling out, ‘stop the big girl, stop the big girl’. Matilda had no idea how strong she was.
“I would often stand there with my hands to my eyes and not be able to watch, fearful that Matilda would accidentally hurt someone. I just hoped all the other players would walk off without an injury. It was definitely hard to watch.”
Peta Scholz (nee Squire) played netball for Australia. As a hard-working, smart wing defence, she won a World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medal alongside champions of the game, including Liz Ellis and Sharelle McMahon.
“I miss playing netball. I wanted to win, I wanted to beat my opponent and I wanted to be the best there was as well,” she says.
Matilda has inherited her mother’s white-line fever.
Her dad, David, recalls a game when she was just 10 playing for the Mitcham Hawks under-14s.
“It was a game against the Henley Sharks. She was going OK in the ruck, and they just got into her. It was pretty brutal. They literally were targeting her, jumping into her, running into her to stop her getting the ball. Anyway, she reacted in a way which I feel like we see a fair bit today – where it actually fires her up a bit. It was almost like a moment for me watching her and suddenly seeing a different kid. When she was pressed physically, she found another gear.”
Scholz now bats away opposition players the way a cowboy swats flies. She has mastered the Dusty Martin “don’t argue”. In season 11, she’s on the cusp of becoming the game’s best player. She’ll need to dethrone Kangaroos champ Jasmine Garner to get there.
The running ruck won her first All-Australian blazer last year. And at the halfway mark of the season, she’s on track to go back-to-back. On Saturday, she’ll be up against one of the AFLW’s most in-form talls, Swans ruck Ally Morphett.
But it’s not just Scholz’s footy attributes that stand out. It’s her marketability as well. Last month, the Power star graced the front cover of Women’s Health magazine. And she’s a social media darling, attracting the most followers on TikTok of all AFLW players. She’s in the top five on Instagram. Melbourne’s Tayla Harris is at No.1.
She is outgoing, vivacious and self-assured. And a proud feminist. She’s gone from the reserved kid who bawled her eyes out before going on year 7 school camp to embracing life as a role model, visiting schools to educate kids about respectful relationships, domestic violence and gender equality.
“Over the last few years, she’s developed a lot of clarity around what she wants to stand for. What’s important to her outside of football?” says David.
“We have these sorts of conversations about the Andrew Tates of the world and about the influence that him and others are having on Gen Z males. For example, our parents have a lot of antiquated ideas about females and what they should and shouldn’t do. But what we’re seeing now is being amplified in another generation. What I love about Matilda is she wants to be a role model to girls, but also to boys as well.”
And the Scholz family is quite the modern, blended family.
David and Peta separated when Matilda was in year 5. Peta, a police officer, has been with her partner, Kate, for 10 years. They married in January. David has also re-partnered and has a three-year-old son, Ned. He’s the apple of Matilda’s eye.
At Alberton home games, they sit together along with both sets of grandparents.
And of course, there’s Poppy, Matilda’s younger sister, who was drafted to Carlton as a key defender but has made a name for herself kicking goals in the navy blue this year.
They are very different people and players but the best of friends.
For now, their parents agree they’re better off playing at different clubs.
“I think, in time, definitely they’d love to play in the same team, and I’d like to see that too, maybe not now, but definitely in the future,” Peta says.
This week Matilda signed a three-year extension that will see her remain at Alberton until the end of the 2030 season.
At just 21, Matilda is settled, maturing and finally working out how best to use her physicality.
“I’m so extremely proud of her. I feel like she’s already exceeded all my expectations,” Peta says. “She has really embraced who she wants to be. She’s 100 per cent true to herself all the time. I love her with every part of me.”
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