Sport
Carlton star Keeley Sherar chats about inspiring the next generation, AFLW’s trajectory and the importance of balance
It’s a crisp Monday morning in Shepparton and Keeley Sherar sits in front of a wide-eyed gang of primary schoolers, answering the kind of probing questions only pre-pubescent kids could conjure up.
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‘What’s your favourite food?’
‘Who’s the best player on your team?’
‘Why are you here?’
It’s a valid line of questioning.
And, while the first query remains a mystery, the second one is easy. Sherar is the best.
She is Carlton AFLW’s reigning best-and-fairest and, at 21 years old, the dynamic midfielder has a long career in the game ahead of her.
Most of the awestruck St Luke’s Primary School students sitting a few metres away are only a decade younger than Sherar, yet when she was 11, there was no such thing as the AFLW.
Hence, the reason for her visit.
“I feel like we always say you can't be what you can't see,” she said.
“For us to come in to these communities and for the primary school children to see there is a future in AFLW for them is important — when I was that age, I didn't have something like that to aspire to be.”
If you’d have asked 11-year-old Sherar what she wanted to be when she grew up, chances are, the answer wouldn’t have been “professional footballer”.
Fast forward to the present day, however, and the Blues’ bolter has a definite future.
Last season may not have been Carlton’s finest, finishing 14th, but it certainly was Sherar’s best since being drafted at pick 11 in the 2021 AFLW Draft.
The nippy two-way runner averaged 22 disposals, 7.3 tackles and 4.4 clearances a game during a campaign that laid it flat for the competition to see: Sherar’s here to stay.
“I think last year, it was probably a bit of a shift for me in terms of my career,” she said.
“I put netball to the side and then I purely was focusing on football, so I was happy in that sense.
“Being able to get a full pre-season in focusing on like footy skills, gym, and that was really nice.”
Like many of the AFLW coterie, Sherar is a hybrid athlete.
She was and is a skilled netballer, who played for Melbourne University Lightning in Victorian Netball League, but when she reached a fork in the road, Sherar chose footy.
However, the part-time nature of the AFLW, combined with the condensed season, leaves talents like Sherar spinning plates when weighing up their sporting options.
“For a long time growing up it was a challenge, juggling both — I was like, ‘oh, what way is it going to go?’,” she said.
“But I think the way AFLW is going in the future probably makes it hard to be able to do another sport.
“That's also a good thing because it shows that people are starting to take this seriously and it's more of like a full-time career in a sense — we can purely focus on that.”
Sherar is right — the AFLW is starting to get serious.
For one, the home and away campaign has grown from an 11-round competition in 2024 to 12 in 2025.
Meanwhile, since the competition’s inception, the average player salary has increased by 94 per cent to approximately $60,000, driven by a five-year collective bargaining agreement that aims to elevate that figure to $82,000 by the end of 2027.
The number of players working outside the league has also declined by 44 per cent.
But the AFLW has still got room to grow.
Sherar works at Bunnings two days a week — a job she’s held since high school — while she has recently started a pilates instructor certification, adding balance to her regimen.
However, during Carlton’s off-season, she went off grid.
Sherar travelled to the Philippines in January, meeting up with fellow Bagger Brooke Vickers to volunteer at a primary school near Palawan Island to teach science, maths and English.
“I think it was very eye-opening in terms of the way they live over there and I feel like it definitely gives you a sense of gratitude — like, wow, we do have it very good here,” she said.
“And (I was also) getting them around footy, turning them into Carlton supporters.”
There is a theme with Sherar.
Whether it’s a tropical afternoon on the islands of South East Asia or a crisp morning in Shepparton, she has a knack of motivating, educating and encouraging the next generation, one question at a time.
‘Why is she here?’
To inspire, that’s why.
Sports editor