Best friends Stephanie Manefield and Linda Bassett are embracing their ‘inner Swan’ this season.

The loyal Swans’ supporters are making 2012 a season to remember and are attempting to pitch the ‘perfect season’, and not miss a Swans game this year.

Manefield and Bassett were there in Adelaide when the Swans won their first interstate game this season against Port Adelaide, they were there for Adam Goodes’ record-breaking game in Launceston and they even flew home from Perth last weekend on the same Red-Eye flight with the Swans players and officials.

Then before they knew it, they had also organised tickets for the Gold Coast in round 18, and now have their sights set on travelling to Melbourne in rounds 19 and 21 before venturing to Simonds Stadium in Geelong for the final home and away round.

“We didn’t really take it too seriously until the Port Adelaide game,” Bassett said of the pair’s plan.

“The week before (the Port game) I had all these missed calls from Steph, and I called her back and she told me she’d got herself a ticket for the Port game and booked a flight, and asked if I wanted to go.

“I told her ‘if you’re going then I’m going!’, so it was all a bit of a frenzy.

“We went, and by then we’d already had a lot of home games, and we already had plans to go to Launceston and Perth, so then we looked at the draw and realised we may as well do them all.

“As Goodsey always says, ‘you’ve just got to back yourself’, so we thought this would be the year.”

While the pair had contemplated the idea of the ‘perfect season’ in the past, it wasn’t until they formed a friendship with Swans Number One Ticket Holder, Philippa Power, that they decided to put their plan into action.

“We had talked about it vaguely last year and had said that one year we’d like to do a perfect season, and we wanted to do it when we thought the team were going to go well,” Bassett said.

“We made friends last year with Philippa Power and when she was made Number One Ticket Holder, she said to us that she was going to try to go to every game this year, and that put the idea in our minds.”

Manefield added that Power inspired the duo to follow in her footsteps as a positive female role model at the club.

“We had a little joke with (Philippa) that she was the First Lady of the Swans, and we were her Ladies in Waiting,” she said.

“As she (was) going to every game we thought we should go as well.”

In light of AFL Women’s Round this weekend, Manefield and Bassett agreed that there was no doubt the Swans value the support of their female fans.

“I just love the inclusiveness of the Swans,” Manefield said.

“I love that as a woman, it’s a sport that really embraces women in terms of fans, particularly at the Swans.

“The commitment of the playing group as well as everyone at the Swans, from the events guys to the guys in the media, all the people are so passionate and dedicated.

“When they win, it’s incredible that euphoria and there aren’t that many things in life that can give you that.”

Bassett said she also admires the inclusivity of the Sydney Swans club.

“I absolutely feel included,” she said.

“I think there is general recognition that women are part of the AFL family and I think most people who like AFL realise that there are always heaps of women in the crowd and there is always heaps going on behind the scenes.

“While I haven’t had any experience with other clubs, the Swans are particularly good at providing opportunities to get involved, communicating with their fan base and just generally being a pretty open organisation in the sense of letting the fans feel like they’re part of it.”

Aside from their lively support in the stands, the two women have also pledged their support to the club on a number of occasions.

“We’re totally committed,” Manefield said.

“We love helping out, so we sell raffle tickets and do whatever we can.

“We’re also Centre Circles members and we’re Blood Brothers and Redback members.

“We really enjoy watching the guys play and we try to participate in whatever the club has going on as a way to support it, so we’re in L@SS, we go to almost all the Sydney corporate functions and we’ll be going to the Melbourne Ladies Lunch.”

With 12 wins and just three losses so far this season, the pair believe they have chosen the right year to show their support.

But Manefield said the perfect season doesn’t stop at the end of the home-and-away rounds.

“(Following the home-and-away season) we’ll shoot at the three games in the finals’ series - because we know we’re going to have a rest in week two!” she said.

“Then hopefully we’ll go straight to the Grand Final.”

“We just knew that when we decided to do it that it was going to be a really good year, and we’ve really, really enjoyed watching the guys play.”

Linda and Stephanie at Subiaco...

Braving the SCG elements at the Geelong game...

and the Brisbane Lions game...

the Red-Eye back from Perth.