Patrick Naish reveals awkward pre-season text to Richmond teammates
When Patrick Naish invited Alex Rance on his podcast he didn’t expect the blowtorch to be turned on his own antics, including an awkward coronavirus text to teammates and a hilarious untold story from the Tigers’ 2019 triumph.
Richmond
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Young Richmond wingman Pat Naish fancies himself as a newsbreaker at Punt Rd, but he missed the mark on his most recent scoop.
Naish got word of some bombshell news a week out from the scheduled start of the season via the Tigers’ elite performance manager Peter Burge, who expressed his doubts about Round 1 going ahead as news moved rapidly on the growing coronavirus crisis.
Naish admits he was “pretty rattled” and “twisted the story”, texting his teammates that the upcoming season-opener against Carlton was off, and so was the entire 2020 season.
“My news wasn’t entirely correct but I’ve sort of told the whole club. I reckon that derailed the boys for Round 1 a bit because they’re probably thinking ‘If Naishy doesn’t reckon we’ll be playing then we probably won’t be playing’ because of my news and how I’ve broken everything.”
Evidently it didn’t have too much of an impact as the Tigers kicked the first give goals against the Blues. The season was postponed three days later.
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Naish, who has launched his own podcast Pat’s Chat, dropped a hint about his next exclusive.
“I’m getting some mail in that we could be back in June, but who knows?”
He also revealed an untold story about the Tigers’ all-conquering 2019 season.
Richmond won the VFL and AFL grand finals and Naish was one of several players who starred in the VFL decider hoping to earn a call-up for the senior side the next week.
They were so desperate not to miss a team meeting at 9am the Monday of Grand Final week, they cut their VFL premiership celebrations short and slept at Punt Rd — with Naish curling up on a gym mat on a basketball court.
It seemed like the perfect plan until he was found by a less than impressed Damien Hardwick the next morning.
“Other than reeking like piss on a Monday morning and sleeping in plain sight of everyone else, you absolutely nailed it,” podcast guest Alex Rance said.
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