Richmond great Matthew Richardson was involved in a case of mistaken identity at the Australian Football Hall of Fame awards night on Tuesday.
Upon arrival at Crown, the 2014 Hall of Fame inductee stated his name and was told he would be seated at table 22.
The 800-goal Tigers legend was initially supposed to have his partner Genevieve alongside him, but that wasn’t to be so he sent a late SOS to former teammate Kayne Pettifer.
With his plus one by his side resplendent in a brand new velvet jacket, Richardson began to panic.
“I got to table 22 which was in the far back corner of Crown Palladium. I thought, ‘geez what a lovely seat’,” he said on Sportsday, facetiously.
“I see my name there, Matthew Richardson, and I was looking around for Genevieve Richardson which was going to be Kayne. He says, ‘there’s no seat for Gen here, are you sure you’ve got a plus one?’
“Then I started doubting myself and I thought maybe I haven’t got the plus one. Kayne has gone and bought the new velvet black jacket for nothing.”
Richo was sweating at this point but the confusion was quickly put to bed by a prominent namesake.
“As me and Kayne are arguing, I get a tap on the shoulder, I turn around, and this gentleman goes ‘wrong table mate’,” he laughed.
“I said ‘really’. He goes ‘Yeah, I’m Matthew Richardson the CEO of Port Adelaide and this is our table’.
“He said your table is somewhere else, so I had to go find out.”
After the mix-up, Richo eventually found his table which just happened to be situated “front and centre” and was home to the great Stephen Michael and Tony Shaw for the night.