If you\u2019re from the western suburbs, chances are you know someone \u2014 a neighbour, a mate\u2019s kid, a kid from school, or someone from the Claremont colts \u2014 who\u2019s been through the anxiety and drama of AFL draft night.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a big deal in our part of Perth.<\/p>\n
Every year, each WAFL club churns out talented young blokes like a backyard assembly line.<\/p>\n
One minute they\u2019re playing footy in the western suburbs, the next they\u2019re being told they might be moving to Queensland. Or worse, Victoria. All at the age of 17 or 18.<\/p>\n
And before any of that happens, they\u2019ve got to survive one of the most nerve-racking experiences in football: the AFL draft combine.<\/p>\n
Now, most people think the combine is all 2km time trials, beep tests, skinfolds and recruiters with clipboards. And yes, there\u2019s plenty of that.<\/p>\n
But behind the closed doors, something much stranger goes on.<\/p>\n
And honestly, if you\u2019ve ever chatted to recruiters, you\u2019ll know they can be equal parts genius, psychologist and Bond villain.<\/p>\n
Because after the sprints, jumps and medical checks, the mind games begin.<\/p>\n
This is where our young WAFL hopefuls discover the AFL has a quirky side.<\/p>\n
One-time Eastern Ranges midfielder Dylan Clarke described the combine interviews as \u201cdaunting\u201d.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s a kid from the Eastern States. Imagine how a West Aussie boy feels after the flight across, the time change and the realisation that he\u2019s about to be interrogated by seven blokes in club polos who look like they haven\u2019t blinked since 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne room \u2014 it\u2019s two guys having a chat,\u201d Clarke, who was eventually drafted by Essendon, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext room, seven guys asking rapid-fire questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rapid fire is right.<\/p>\n
Our WA boys have faced some truly head-scratching gems over the years. Clarke himself was asked to spell quadrangle backwards, followed by a quick-fire maths question that sounded like it belonged in an ATAR exam.<\/p>\n
And then things really get weird.<\/p>\n
Will Brodie, who ended up at the Dockers as a top-10 pick, recalled a club asking: \u201cIf your brother had a broken leg in the back seat and you hit a red light, would you run it?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nothing says \u201cWelcome to the AFL\u201d like being asked whether you\u2019d commit a hypothetical traffic offence.<\/p>\n
Quite a few WA lads have been hit with the backwards-spelling classic.<\/p>\n
It sounds silly until you\u2019re sweating under fluorescent lights while seven recruiters stare at you like you\u2019re trying to defuse a bomb.<\/p>\n
Words thrown out over the years include Adelaide. Avocado. Washington. And my personal favourite: sausage.<\/p>\n
You haven\u2019t lived until you\u2019ve watched a six-foot-four key defender try to spell \u201csausage\u201d in reverse at speed.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s entertainment you can\u2019t get at the Royal Show.<\/p>\n
Then there are the questions that go for the soul.<\/p>\n
Tim Taranto, later a star at GWS and now Richmond, was asked to list every reason a club shouldn\u2019t draft him. Talk about a trick question.<\/p>\n
Imagine asking a teenager to sell themselves, then immediately asking them to unsell themselves. It\u2019s like a warped job interview run by Kafka.<\/p>\n
Brisbane premiership star Jarrod Berry was asked to reveal the most illegal thing he\u2019d ever done.<\/p>\n
He wisely kept that one between himself and the recruiter, and possibly his dad and lawyer.<\/p>\n
And then there was Gold Coast prospect Jack Bowes. He was asked \u201cWhy did you make the Under 18 All-Australian team?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bowes said he wanted to reply \u201cI don\u2019t know, mate; ask the bloody selectors\u201d. Fair point.<\/p>\n
You might be thinking: this is madness. Why not just ask the kids about football? Well, the method behind the madness is simple: they\u2019re testing composure.<\/p>\n
Clubs want to see: Can the player stay calm? Can they think under pressure? Do they panic? Can they think outside the box?<\/p>\n
Can they show personality without giving an answer they prepared earlier?<\/p>\n
And I suppose I get it. I\u2019d say that in terms of footy, the number one quality you\u2019re looking for is skill and athletic ability \u2026 then next is mental toughness.<\/p>\n
My own view is that deep thinking plays a part too; as in if you think \u201ctoo\u201d much or overthink things, that is not ideal.<\/p>\n
Probably the perfect AFL draftee is a kid who can understand tactics and strategy but is also inclined to think that footy is really, really important.<\/p>\n
So for now we accept that AFL life is full of curveballs, from the media, from fans, from teammates, and even from life itself.<\/p>\n
And if you can stay calm while spelling \u201cavocado\u201d backwards, you can probably handle a hostile crowd at the MCG.<\/p>\n
So every year on draft night, spare a thought for the young men from Claremont, West Perth, Subi and Perth.<\/p>\n
They have survived the fitness tests, the interviews, the mind games, the maths questions and the spelling bees.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve done the hard yards, and now comes the exciting bit: finding out where they\u2019ll play the next chapter of their lives.<\/p>\n
And if they still remember how to spell \u201csausage\u201d backwards, they\u2019ll be just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re from the western suburbs, chances are you know someone \u2014 a neighbour, a mate\u2019s kid, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,505,44,1721,46,588,85,45,506],"class_list":["post-310438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-central","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-perth","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-wa-news","tag-western-suburbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}