Deanna Waters, phone in hand, propped herself up on a milk crate in the Blue Mountains as she cheered on her beloved Sydney Swans.

It was a bitterly cold afternoon in the middle of May in 2017, but neither icy weather nor flickering reception would ever stop her from catching the red and white in action.

Waters is among the 61,671 Swans members the club will celebrate in its annual Member Recognition Round at the SCG on Sunday afternoon. 

The die-hard Swans supporter will take up her usual position beside the Paul Kelly Race as Sydney meets the Geelong Cats and, as indicated by her clever thinking in the Blue Mountains, her full-blooded passion will shine through.

“I was supporting a friend of mine who was doing the UTA 100 (100-kilometre Ultra-Trail Australia),” Waters told Swans Media.

“I was out helping her on her big run but I wasn’t going to miss my Swans play. It was near the Old Queen Victoria Hospital and I had a few other people around me wanting to know what the score was. It was a cold afternoon and I was sitting on a milk crate in my Swans jacket, but I will always do anything it takes to catch my Swans.”

Waters hadn’t ever been to a Swans game when a friend invited her to the SCG in 2012, but she loved it so much that she hasn’t missed a home match since becoming a club member in 2013.

The Northern Beaches local is a member of the club’s Ladies at Sydney Swans (L@SS) group, and her favourite players are co-captain Josh Kennedy and young speedster Oliver Florent.

Waters says there’s a lot to love about the red and white.

“There’s good family entertainment, they have high values, they play really hard and they play the right style of football.”