What Could've Been: Hilarious moment former Richmond player Pat Naish was woken up by Damien Hardwick in the gym

7NEWS

24-07-2025

Walking into work on the Monday of the biggest week of your life, 2019 AFL grand final week for then-Richmond coach Damien Hardwick, you probably don't expect to see a player fast asleep in the middle of the gym.
That's exactly what happened when former Tigers winger Pat Naish was the one unlucky VFL premiership player to miss out on a sleeping spot at the club when celebrations were finished.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Pat Naish woken up by Damien Hardwick in Richmond gym.
The Tigers reserves had just beat Williamstown by three points to win an epic VFL flag and had agreed they'd all stick together, at the club, in the post-match.
'That night we ended up having beers back at the club and we were just having a good time, as you do — (I was a) young 20-year-old at the time,' Naish recalled on What Could've Been.
''Fly' (then-VFL coach Craig McRae) had made a rule that we can have as many beers as we want, go to bed at whatever time we want — just don't leave the venue.
'We all brought a change of clothes to the game — we might have been a bit confident that we were going to win it.
'And then from there, we all went back to the club and just had beers and celebrated as you do after a flag — knowing that we still had the AFL grand final that week.
'But we were all under the impression that we were all allowed to stay at the club and the coaches were across it.'
Naish recounted the hilarious story with a laugh, but said he wasn't laughing at the time.
'Anyway, fast-forward to about 6.30am, everyone's asleep,' he went on.
'I made the mistake of not sussing out the bed situation before.
'At Richmond, the clubrooms are out the back, you walk through and there are changerooms and you've got massage tables and all that, so everyone took the massage tables, they were done.
'I was like, far out, what am I going to do, I actually don't have a bed, my car was there but it wasn't big enough to sleep in.
'So then I've been the smart one to go into the middle of the gym and sleep smack bang in the middle of it, on one of those gymnastic mats. It was one of the best sleeps I've had! It was that comfy, I just sunk right into it, had the hoodie on.
'And I just wake up, it was about 6.30, and Dimma used to always do a workout with all the staff members, and he woke me up, and he goes, 'What the F are you?' And I was like, 'Hey Dimma, how are ya mate? How good's this, we just won a flag!' And Dimma's like, 'Mate, go have an f'n shower'.
'I literally was the most sheepish bloke. Walked straight down the hall.
'I remember one of the coaches came down and he goes, 'What's just happened? Dimma's going to send all these VFL boys home because you've slept on the mat'.
'And I was like, 'We've just got told to sleep at the club, like what's going on here?' I thought I was doing the right thing.
'It wasn't like we were all still going, it was just literally the wrong spot to sleep.
'The true story is we were going to get sent home for the week, and then 'Rancey' (Alex Rance) got up and said, 'Nah, it's my fault', Fly said 'It's my fault'.
'Lucky I signed a two-year deal at the start of that,' he joked.