But now a tough first year at Collingwood is well and truly in the rear view mirror and Schultz is starting to remind everyone why the Magpies were so desperate to secure his services.
The then-reigning premiers paid up handsomely - pick No.34 and their first-round pick in last year's draft, to secure Schultz, who had kicked 63 goals across his previous two seasons, from Fremantle.
But in a Magpies team that missed finals and battled with injuries, Schultz struggled, at times becoming a whipping boy for disgruntled fans.
"You're an easy target when the club's given up a fair bit to get you across and people have such high expectations on you," Schultz told AAP.
"When the team's not performing, I guess they can come at you pretty easily. I wasn't a part of the premiership, so I didn't have that respect at times.
"It does make it hard. You've got enough expectations on yourself in those positions, and then when you get the external expectations, it can mount up in your own head.
"But I was able to get through the year and look back and reflect on it for what it was, and that held me in good stead going into this year."
Forwards coach Scott Selwood helped Schultz get on top of his frustration.
"He could see the performance anxiety that came along with it, and he was just able to reassure me that what I was doing was so valuable to our team," he said.
"At the end of the day, that's alI I really care about, if you're valued within the four walls - well, that's enough for me."
Schultz, 27, kept working on building relationships and put together a big pre-season.
"It gave me a lot of confidence going into the year that last year was an outlier in my career," he said.
"The first month this year went pretty well, and that gave me a lot of confidence going forward.
"I was obviously hampered with a few hamstring issues and a concussion, but being able to get back for the last six or seven rounds of the year and try and pick up where I left off was something that just gave me a lot of confidence going into the finals."
Schultz has kicked just 12 goals in 15 games but has become a hard-tackling, heart-and-soul part of Collingwood's attack.
"When you experience a low or a lull in your career, like I did last year, when you've got such high expectations, it just makes it even more special this year when things start going well again," Schultz said.
Next, he'll prepare to limit the run of one of Dayne Zorko or Darcy Wilmot while hitting the scoreboard himself in Saturday night's preliminary final against the Brisbane Lions at the MCG.
Then, an elusive flag, and reward for all that work, beckons.
"It'd mean everything," he said.
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