"I don't think it's a bad thing to bring in someone with a bit of distance to engage on the board with someone who's been a passionate Port supporter since birth," she said. Holly Ransom has promised David Koch to "never stop challenging" at the Port board table. Credit:Wayne Taylor "Port's turnaround story is quite remarkable and they want to be at the forefront with how the game evolves and how we engage with young people and women. "We need to look at how we see young people and how we take the game to the world and develop new markets. I think this has become such an exciting football club and I'm sure there's no token element in the appointment." Koch told Fairfax Media he had held a vacancy on the Port board as he searched for a young woman who could represent the millennial generation.

Ransom, chief executive of consulting group Emergent Solutions, which specialises in marketing to the millennials, was recommended to him by two AFL commissioners – the outgoing Sam Mostyn and Richard Goyder. "I don't care where we find them or get them from," said Koch of recruiting a West Coast fan. "My challenge is to convert them to the Port Adelaide way. Just like we have a terrific CEO who didn't ever play for or follow the club." Mostyn and Goyder are mentors to Ransom, and Westfarmers' Goyder told Koch he had tried without success to hire her. "We needed someone who could represent our 15 to 30-year-olds," Koch said. "More and more clubs need to focus on this digital space and we specifically wanted a young woman – a millennial. "They're such a dynamic generation and they think entirely differently to us and they're never represented on AFL boards. Holly has been an extraordinary performer in the disruption industry and the digital industry. "My goal for us because we're a little club from Adelaide is to challenge traditional thinking."

Ransom joins Amanda Vanstone as a Port woman director and is one of three board members living on the eastern seaboard, the other two being Koch and Cos Cardone. "The AFL would be the first to admit they've done good work in this space of promoting women but that there's more to be done in how we support those women," Ransom said. "At a guess I'd say there's maybe 25 to 30 women directors at clubs out of about 180 in total. There should be more." Koch conceded Port could prove a challenge for Ransom, an independent operator used to running her own show. She was interviewed extensively not only by club chief executive Keith Thomas but also by its director and Adelaide establishmentarian Kevin Osborne.

"We had a really full and frank discussion about all of that," Koch said. "Coming into an organisation steeped in and surrounded by history will be a good learning experience for her."