Top draft prospects reveal strangest questions they have been asked by AFL clubs

ESSENDON is armed with a mountain of intel on likely No.1 draft pick Hugh McCluggage, but we’re not sure how the answer to one very strange question will help.

ESSENDON will have plenty to ponder when it decides who to take with the No.1 draft pick.

The Bombers are up to their ears in junior footy stats, scouting reports, draft combine results and character references.

So when you have the potential top draft choice in front of you, what do you ask them?

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Hugh McCluggage, the hot tip to join the Bombers on November 25, has revealed the answer: Can you count backwards in sevens from 230?

“It was pretty tough,” he said in a video on the AFL website. “I stumbled on the first one but once I got going I was all right.”

Clubs regularly throw curly questions at draft prospects in their bids to gain an insight into how their brain works.

Murray Bushrangers midfielder Will Brodie revealed last month some of the mind games clubs played at this year’s draft combine.

“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?” he said.

Potential No. 1 draft pick Hugh McCluggage.

Alex Witherden was asked if he bites his fingernails and one club wanted to know if Griffin Logue picks up after his dog (“If it’s at home then yea but if it’s in the grass, it’s all right isn’t it?” was his reply).

A number of likely first-round draftees were asked to spell words backwards — Will Setterfield copped “sausage”, Jordan Galluci “quadrangle” and the Bombers asked Tim Taranto to spell “Washington” backwards.

Jack Scrimshaw could slide down the order based on his answer when asked to divide 217 by three. Asked how he went, he said “not too good, to be honest”.

But if the Bulldogs had doubts about key forward Todd Marshall it seems they were allayed.

“The Bulldogs were really keen (to know) if I had a girlfriend or not,” he said.

“I do. They just kept harping on it.”

Originally published as Top draft prospects reveal strangest questions they have been asked by AFL clubs