"Not a day goes past when the boys don't think about that," the Port Adelaide forward said on Wednesday.
"That will always be in the boys' minds."
McCarthy fell to his death at a Las Vegas casino complex on an end-of-season trip with teammates.
"It's a tough one to talk about a little bit," Schulz said on the second-year anniversary.
"It's always an emotional time. And it's also time for remembering those sorts of things.
"But we know him as a person, he wouldn't want us to get hung up on it too much.
"He is always there with us when we run out every week."
McCarthy's death was a low ebb in the life of Schulz, who trod a troubled path to the AFL's upper class.
Schulz debuted for Richmond in 2003 and then twice broke an ankle.
In 2005, he got caught drink driving and speeding 40kmh above the limit - costing the Tigers a half-million dollar sponsorship with the Traffic Accident Commission.
Port investigates alleged racism
On field, Schulz tried second-fiddle in a one-man band, the Matthew Richardson show.
Port tried to lure Schulz back to SA in 2007, but he remained another two years at Richmond.
After only four AFL games in 2009, Port, and opportunity, again came knocking - Schulz, who never kicked more than 16 goals in a season, was traded.
The Richmond bit player has since morphed into a member of the AFL's elite, the man most pundits would want kicking at goal to save their life.
He's topped Port's goalkicking in four of his five years with uncanny accuracy - 64.23 this season; 277.136 over 165 games.
But only now is Schulz getting what he craved: finals.
"It's such a special time," said Schulz, who played his first final last season, his 10th year in the caper.
"I have played for a long time and last year was my first experience of finals and it was just such an enjoyable time.
"You want to still be training because if you're not, that means it's it. I want to come to training next week."
Last year, Port fell at this hurdle - 16-point semi-final losers to Geelong - and Schulz said the wound remained raw.
"You draw on that experience of last year," he said.
"I still remember what it was like in the rooms afterwards and what it is like on the ground after the siren goes.
"You just don't want to go there ... I don't want footy to finish yet."
After such a finals-barren existence, Schulz is now daring to dream of a premiership.
"It means everything ... I think about it daily, I think about it regularly," he said.
"It's all that drives me at the moment, and drives our group, and drives every footballer that plays."
