Port Adelaide was saddened to learn of the passing of its oldest member Thelma Pope shortly after the New Year.

Mrs Pope was a lifelong Port Adelaide supporter, growing up behind the Alberton Oval fence as she cheered her beloved Maggies on.

Like any local child living in Port's heartland in the 1910s and 1920s, wearing black and white was easy.

When the club was admitted to the AFL for the 1997 season, she naturally added a fresh Power scarf to her wardrobe.

Whether it was at the venue, watching the telly at home, or tuning in on the wireless, Thelma was a typical football firebrand - a passionate barracker for her club through the ups and downs that only the Australian game brings.

Speaking to her last year, her lucid, irreverent love of life and the game was clear. 

When the club interviewed her to celebrate her 107th birthday, he larrikin humour was in full swing.

Few would disagree the centenarian Thelma was probably little different to the one who had lived through the club's fifties heyday and popular renaissance in the late seventies and its rise to the big league in the nineties.

Fewer could claim to have seen such great names as Shine Hosking, Bob Quinn, Fos Williams, Jack Cahill, Russell Ebert, Tim Evans, Scott Hodges, Gavin Wanganeen, Warren Tredrea and Robbie Gray pull on the Port jumper.

She could. 

And we’d like to think Thelma would be inclined to say she was around to witness her club claim 32 senior premierships (including a flag in the AFL) during her lifetime, rather than having lived through two World Wars.

Local footy clubs are built on the support of passionate fans like Thelma.

Ours is richer for it.

Port Adelaide extends its sympathies to Thelma’s family, and we thank them for the years of support they have offered to the club.