Actually take a step further: a Black Sticks side without Naylor and her good friend Kayla Whitelock doesn't look right.
Talk about the ties that bind. The pair first crossed each other's paths at intermediate school, and attended Palmerston North Girls High together.
Captain Whitelock graduated to the national team in her final year at school. Naylor followed a year later.
Naylor was Whitelock's maid of honour at her recent wedding to Canterbury and Crusaders flanker George Whitelock.
Both are in impressive form and if New Zealand are to be a threat for gold in Glasgow, they will be important cogs in the process.
Where Whitelock is a central midfielder, Naylor oversees the defensive operation. Or as Hager put it: "she cleans up behind Kayla. When she's playing well I'm not getting so many headaches".
In April, Naylor eclipsed Susie Muirhead's 238 caps and became New Zealand's most capped women's international. She should pass 250 in Glasgow.
"I guess it's one of those things that kind of crept up on me pretty quickly," Naylor said.
"It was never a goal of mind but it was pretty neat because I played with Susie when I first made the team, she's someone I respected and she was there presenting it to me. I thought 'wow, this is pretty special'."
... people have become fitter and faster. I remember when I first made the team I was one of the fastest, or possibly one of the fittest. Now I'm middle of the road.
Naylor isn't one of the flashier players in the team.
She goes about her work almost unobtrusively. Effectiveness could be her byword.
Her debut came in an Olympic qualifying tournament in Auckland; shortly after she was jetting off to Athens for the 2004 Olympics, the first of her three trips to the biggest show.
"That first trip I remember being so excited. I'd never been to a big tournament, or even past Australia."
Few sports travel as frequently as hockey, so Naylor has racked up the air miles, 30 countries at last count.
She admits some of the travelling has become a bit of a chore, but her enthusiasm for being part of the Black Sticks hasn't dimmed.
So how has the game changed in her decade at the top?
"I watched an old game a couple of months ago and it seemed so much slower than now.
"Some of the new rules have definitely helped that, and people have become fitter and faster. I remember when I first made the team I was one of the fastest, or possibly one of the fittest. Now I'm middle of the road."
Naylor has a soft spot for the Athens squad, but if pushed, she will plump for the London Olympic team of 2012 as the best she's been involved in.
A large part of that, she believes, was down to the ethos and camaraderie within the group.
"We had a fantastic culture. The attitude within the group was that everyone believed we could win.
"We just got on so well. It got to the point where everyone was honest with each other and it just gelled once we got to London."
The hurt came at the end with New Zealand losing a penalty shootout to the Dutch which cost a place in the final; they then fell over against Britain in the bronze medal match.
Right now, things are looking good.
Naylor has been impressed with the younger players coming in.
Naylor, who lives on a deer farm at Kereru, west of Hastings with partner Harry Gaddum, is facing the same dilemma as Whitelock. Time catches up and priorities do change.
The skipper is taking a break after Glasgow, heading to Japan for several months and about to embark on some serious soul-searching over her hockey future.
Naylor admits she is in a similar situation.
"There are a few decisions to be made. I feel I am towards the end of my career but I still enjoy it and being part of the group."
Unlike Whitelock, who admitted the Rio Olympics in 2016 was a strong lure to carry on, Naylor keeps her own counsel on that.
"I won't make any decisions until later in the year. I'll see how it goes at the Commonwealth Games."
