PORT ADELAIDE ruck Matilda Scholz has admitted she did not realise she was still eligible for the Telstra AFLW Rising Star award, after being nominated for the second time.

Scholz was the Week Seven nominee for her performance against Collingwood last Thursday after also getting the nod in Round 2 last season.

The 19-year-old is the third Port Adelaide player to be nominated in just seven weeks this season. She was fourth in the overall Rising Star votes last year.

Scholz’s nine clearances in Thursday night’s win over Collingwood was a career high, while she also had 15 disposals, six tackles and a goal in the eight-point victory.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Scholz discussed how she found out she’d been nominated as a Rising Star again, her Virgin AFLW Mark of the Year contender against the Magpies and the change she has seen that has led to the side’s historic run of three wins in-a-row for the first time.

Matilda Scholz on her Virgin AFLW Mark of the Year contender against Collingwood last week:

“I've been working a lot on my marking the first half of the season, like I hadn't taken a contested mark, so I spent a lot of time working on my contested marking. And for then that to stick, I was just really happy about it as you could tell by the shock on my face as I was on my way down.

“It happened pretty quickly. I don't remember a lot of it, but I do remember the crowd was pretty cool, and they got around it, and when I got down Lambie (Kirsty Lamb) was like, just kick the set shot. And I said ‘I'll give it a shot. I'll try to, it's my aim’.”

Matilda Scholz on how she feels about her mark being described as one of the greatest in AFLW history, and how she’d use the prizes if she won:

“I think I've watched it maybe too many times to think it's anything amazing now, but I'm pretty honoured to have that said about my mark. I think it's just a massive call. Everyone's been really excited and happy for me, which is really nice. And a couple of my teammates reckon they want some money or some velocity points if I win - we might have to go on a team trip or something if I win, but we'll see. I think I have tried not to think about (winning the award) too much, because I don't want to jinx anything. (The prize money would) probably have to go in savings or something, hopefully get out of my parents’ house a bit sooner.”

 Matilda Scholz on winning three games in a row for the first time, and whether the energy has changed in the group with the potential to play finals:

“It's been a really good past few weeks. We've enjoyed it, but I think we've taken a lot out of every game, like lots of positives and also lots of things that we can work on. This week's going to be really important – it could sort of determine the rest of our season so I think we need to really focus on ourselves now. We've celebrated a bit on the days of the games, on the days of a win, we've enjoyed it and then gone straight on to focus on our next week.

“(It’s) very much been one week at a time and (we’ve) sort of gone into it no different than any other game. it's so unpredictable what teams can sort of produce each week in AFLW, and I think that this week's no different. We're just going to take it like it's any other game. It doesn't matter whether it can determine the rest of our season, but just making sure we're playing the game we want to play and focusing on ourselves.”

Matilda Scholz on winning a second Telstra AFLW Rising Star nomination:

“It was really cool. I wasn't expecting it at all. I didn't even know I was still eligible, to be honest, but (Justine Mules-Robinson) announced that yesterday in front of the group, which was a really nice moment. She said some really nice words about me, which almost made me start crying a bit. And yeah, I’m just grateful.

“She said something about being like a little sister to her, which was lovely, and obviously throwing a bit of banter around there as well.” 

Matilda Scholz on whether she’d rather win the Mark of the Year or Rising Star award if she could win only one:

“I'd love to win the Rising Star. I think that's a massive reflection on your whole season, rather than Mark of the Year, which is just one moment. But I think Molly (Brooksby) and Shineah Goody, they're doing so well. I'd really love to see them get up there. They've just come out in their first season, just absolutely attacked it. They've been so, so instrumental for our team.”

Matilda Scholz on what she puts the side’s recent form down to:

“I think we've honestly just matured a lot as a team. We understand each other so much more now, like some of them having played together for now three years, I think it's just a maturity thing, to be honest.

“I think our expectations have always really stayed the same, but we've now been able to achieve our goals and stuff, which has been really important for us, and setting our KPIs for each game, and on the weekend, we ticked off all four of our KPIs, which was really exciting for us, because we haven't been able to do that yet.”

Matilda Scholz on how exciting it is to play in front of the vocal crowd at Alberton Oval:

“I'm pretty biased, but I think we've got one of the best crowds out there. It gets pretty full each week, which is awesome. It's so exciting to play in front of that many people and people that really care about us as well. I think we just have one of the best supporter groups.”