If you’re a regular user of the #foreverfreo hashtag on Twitter, you’ll be familiar with Judy Whitehurst.

Jude is not only one of Fremantle’s most passionate supporters in real life, she’s also one of our biggest supporters online, sharing plenty of love for both the men’s and women’s teams.

A fan since day one, Jude is used to relying on technology to keep up to date with the team.

“I was living in the UK when we were established and the minute I came back to Australia in 2002 I took up membership,” Judy said.

“I have friends who are foundation members. They used to keep me updated with what was going on, of course there was no social media back then so it was all done by fax!

“When we were losing they were very depressing faxes!”

A fan of the Perth Demons in the WAFL, Judy supported Essendon prior to Fremantle joining the AFL because of the teams’ shared colours and jumper.

In 1995 she was easily coaxed around to Freo by her two friends.

“Margaret and Graeme Herbert, they were foundation members, I’ve known them for 50 years and they were very enthusiastic Fremantle supporters,” Jude said.

“When I came home on holidays they used to take me to games.”

Footy is more than just a sport for Judy. She has long relished the social side of going to games with her friends as well as events as a member of Fremantle’s women’s supporter group The Sirens.

“I love the social aspect. If we lose we’d go somewhere afterwards and we would debrief, have a drink and talk it out and then we’d feel a lot better – stay off social media until everyone has sort of got over it,” Judy said.

“If we win it’s a big celebration, so it’s really good to have friends you can bounce off.”

“(Fellow member) Diane Meakins organises most things, she’s just simply amazing. She’s a legend, the way she runs that group.

“Griffin Logue is our sponsored men’s player at the moment. He’s great fun and he’s come to a couple of functions but we don't get up to anything too outrageous.

"That would be telling!

“It’s really just a fun group. We just have a good laugh and we just all get on really well.”

Judy said her favourite player for some time has been David Mundy.

“In my first year, Justin Longmuir was my favourite player and then Luke McPharlin and now David Mundy,” Judy said.

“I don’t know why but I’ve just always loved him, even from the first game he played when everyone used to bash him and say he was too slow and too laconic - I've always loved the way he played.”

Just last week, Judy called the club to pay her 2020 membership in full, including her AFL, AFLW and Sirens membership. 

In return, she got a surprising phone call back from the club.

“I just decided to pay out the balance of my membership because I just wanted to support the club through these tough times,” Judy said. 

“Later that day I had two missed calls and it’s unusual for me to return a call from an unknown number.

“I called back and the voice said ‘hi Judy, this is Justin Longmuir’ and I thought ‘wow’. 

“It was like chatting to a friend, he was very easy to talk to and he just thanked me for what I had done and for supporting the club.

“We just chatted about what I was doing, what he was doing and how things were going.                                                                                                                                        

“I thought it was a nice touch.”