"Up the Bulldogs! Up the Bulldogs!" she chants, stamping away in her South Hurstville nursing home as she gears up for Sunday's NRL decider against South Sydney.

Whoever sits next to this Canterbury-Bankstown fan during the grand final should be warned.

"I'll be on the edge of my seat all the time and when I get excited I stand up," she says. "When they are about to cross over, I wouldn't want to stand next to me."

Mavis wears white sandals and white socks, a blue blouse, and a white fluffy jumper, a blue-and-white Bulldogs scarf draped around her shoulders

She has been a Bulldogs fan for 79 years, since the club was founded, "since I was a little girl".

"We would sit up on the hill and watch them there," she said, recalling weekends at Belmore sports ground. "All of the team were very popular with us because we got to know them all just going each week."

The Judge family were not only passionate fans but evangelists, says former neighbour Ailsa Walters.

The Walters, who lived opposite the Judges in the 1970s, were Magpies fans who refused to convert. So Mavis sent her five children on a night-time propaganda mission.

Ailsa woke to find her veranda and garden festooned with blue-and-white streamers. Even the Walters' Doberman had a blue-and-white train.

"They tried to turn it into a bulldog," she says.

Having seen almost eight decades of players come and go, choosing favourites can be difficult for Mavis.

But the name Steve Mortimer stands out and she remembers shaking the hand of the club's greatest goal-kicker, Hazem El Masri.

Captain Michael Ennis' absence because of a fractured foot does not faze her too much.

"Sometimes a fresh player can give them fresh supplies," she says.

Confident the Bulldogs will win – "they better" – she is willing to put her money whether her mouth is. "I better have a little bet," Mavis says. "Show them I'm interested."