You see, Sister Madeleine just happens to be 109 - which means she’s lived through each of the Blues’ 16 League premierships since 1906 and surely qualifies as the game’s oldest supporter.
The second of seven children of Patrick and Ada Lawrence, Sister Madeleine (then Catherine) Lawrence was born in Notting Hill on December 8, 1902 in what was the final year of the Boer War.
Having recently celebrated the 90th anniversary of her final vows (she’s the oldest living nun in the southern hemisphere), Sister Madeleine was but a toddler when Carlton fronted up against Fitzroy in its first VFL Grand Final of 1904.
And she was a girl of four when the team, under Jack Worrall, exacted sweet revenge on the Maroons in the 1906 Grand Final - the first of three premierships in succession with a baker’s dozen to follow.
Modestly playing down her reputation as one of this club’s greatest devotees, Sister Madeleine admitted always having a soft spot for the Blues since the days of silent film in the early 1920s, when she boarded a Goulburn-bound train to join the Sisters of Mercy and further her career as a schoolteacher.
“I was always interested in teaching and encouraging children to play football,” said Sister Madeleine, who plied her craft in various primary schools and orphanages throughout the Riverina - Finley and Jerilderie amongst them.
“In those days each of the children I taught followed a football team, still do, and the team that most children at Jerilderie supported was Carlton,” she said.
“Of course, you had to take up the same interest as them, and that’s how Carlton came to be my team - and if you ask me to name the greatest player? - Kernahan.”
Though she’s lived in retirement at Young’s Mercy Convent in southern New South Wales for the past quarter of a century, Sister Madeleine still receives the occasional greeting card from an old pupil.
The card surely finds its way to her room, sometimes beneath the closed door onto which the “Gone to Melbourne” sign is pinned whenever she tunes in to the latest Carlton game on the telly.
“While I don’t expect them to be on the top all of the time because there has to be a sharing of winning, Carlton teams have generally taken all before them,” Sister Madeleine said.
“Whether the team wins or loses, I still watch Carlton play. The interest is still there.”
Mindful of the change in Senior Coach at the club, Sister Madeleine preferred not to offer counsel to Mick Malthouse, some 50 years her junior.
“No, I won’t be putting in my two bob’s worth,” she said, “but I’ll be watching on to see what happens . . . and I just hope the players are part of a very successful season”.
And when it was put to her that time would still allow her to savour a 17th Carlton premiership, Sister Madeleine buoyantly replied: “Do you think so?”.
“Well, God only knows,” said the woman who’s lived through to World Wars and The Great Depression. “It’s all in His hands, nobody else’s, and at the moment I’m not feeling too bad.”
The Carlton Football Club has seen fit to grant Sister Madeleine honorary membership, not surprisingly with the imprimatur of her poster boy, the President Stephen Kernahan.
“Sister Madeleine, the Carlton Football Club extends its very best wishes to you as you approach your 110th birthday,” Kernahan said.
“We thank you sincerely for your on-going support of Carlton. If there is anything we as a club can do for you, please let the President know, and if that means coming down to see a Carlton game we’ll get you here.
