Carlton beat St Kilda by 26 points, 9.12 (66) to 6.4 (40), to open the 2026 AFLW season at Marvel Stadium on Sunday evening.
The Blues had it won by half time. Poppy Scholz kicked the first goal of the season and Carlton led 3.1 to 0.1 at the first change, then 6.5 to 1.2 at the main break. St Kilda kicked five goals to three after the break and never got the margin inside 23 points.
Tyanna Smith was the best player on the ground and she was in the losing side: 24 disposals, eight clearances and two goals for the St Kilda midfielder.
Carlton's goals were spread: Lily Goss two, Darcy Vescio two, Keck two, and one each to Scholz, Dayna Finn and Nell Morris-Dalton. Scholz, Claudia Whitfort, Abbie McKay and Finn were the Blues' best. For St Kilda, Amber Clarke kicked two, including a soccered finish off the deck that will be in the goal of the year conversation, and Serene Watson worked hard through the middle.
The Blues did it without Sophie McKay, Keeley Sherar and Breann Harrington, and may be short again this week after Hendrie picked up a right ankle problem. St Kilda lost J'Noemi Anderson to a hamstring after she had kicked a goal.
The crowd was 20,455, and the reason for it is the fixture. This was the front half of Spud's Game, the AFL's mental health round match named for former St Kilda captain Danny Frawley, and the first time the AFLW has been part of it. The same two clubs played the men's fixture at the same ground three hours later, where Carlton won 16.10 (106) to 8.14 (62) in front of 43,434.
The AFL moved the start times of nine matches across the first two AFLW rounds to reduce the overlap with the men's competition, and all four AFL and AFLW double headers scheduled this year fall inside that two round window. Three of the four are still to come. After that the AFLW plays on its own.
Round one continues on Thursday night with Hawthorn and Melbourne at IKON Park, then runs across the weekend, finishing with four matches on Sunday.
