TESTING at the national AFL draft combine is stressful enough.

But on top of participating in gruelling fitness trials like the beep test and 3km time trial, as well as undertaking dozens of media interviews, aspiring draftees then also have to confront several AFL clubs in an interview environment.

And some of the questions thrown their way this year would catch almost any interviewee off-guard.

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Finals Week 1

While aspiring AFL players meet with clubs right throughout the season, their interviews during the national combine go to a new level.

Eastern Ranges on-baller Dylan Clarke said meetings differ greatly.

“The chats at the combine are a bit daunting,” Clarke told foxfooty.com.au.

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“Some clubs have two blokes in there and more of a free-flowing conversation. Then you go into the next room and there’s seven blokes in there and they are just rapid fire questions.”

Clarke said each player had to “be prepared for anything” going into each interview, but added that you can’t afford to present yourself as someone you’re not.

“While it can be a bit daunting, you still want to enjoy the experience and make the most of it,” Clarke said.

“You don’t want to be a robot and give them structured answers that you think they want to hear. You want to answer with things that reflect your values and what you actually believe, which I think is very important.”

Clarke was one of several players during the combine that revealed to foxfooty.com.au the weirdest questions they had been asked by clubs.

Dylan Clarke doing the agility test at the AFL Draft Combine. Picture: Andrew Henshaw Source: News Corp Australia

“I got a question midway through the year that was something like ‘spell quadangle backwards’ — is that even a word? It might’ve been quadrangle,” he laughed.

“Then divide 700 and something by three. It was a bit strange.”

Murray Bushrangers midfielder Will Brodie — widely tipped to be a top 10 pick come November’s national draft — also had an interesting experience.

“I’ve found there’s a lot of mind games and they throw a lot of curly questions,” Brodie said.

“One club asked me that if I was driving and my brother was in the back seat with a broken leg and I was at a red light, would I go straight through it?”

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Several players’ maths skills were put to the test — Murray’s Todd Marshall claims he had to “count backwards from the 700s by 72s, so that was weird and pretty tough” — while others said they had been asked to spell some words backwards.

Will Setterfield had to spell “sausage” in reverse, Alex Witherden copped “Adelaide”, Jack Scrimshaw had “avocado” and Tim Taranto got “Washington”.

Speaking of Taranto, the Sandringham Dragons star was left startled by one club in particular.

“I can’t remember who asked it, but probably the hardest one was a club asked me to tell them every reason why they shouldn’t draft me,” Taranto said.

Cairns’ Jack Bowes was asked why he made the All-Australian side. Source: Getty Images

“I pretty much just had to list everything I was average at.”

North Ballarat’s Jarrod Berry was asked to reveal “the most illegal thing I’d done”.

“I wasn’t expecting that, it threw me for a little bit and I had to think about it,” Berry said.

Quite rightly, Berry didn’t reveal his answer to foxfooty.com.au.

And then there was Gold Coast academy prospect Jack Bowes, who was left stumped by one question during a club meeting.

“I was asked by one recruiter: ‘Why did you make the All-Australian side at the national champs this year?’ I just, you know, found that pretty funny actually,” Bowes laughed.

“I felt like saying: ‘I don’t know mate, ask the selectors.’ It’s hard to answer.”