Training and playing not the priority: Bulldogs comment on Ugle-Hagan situation

Football is not the priority or the focus for Western Bulldogs young gun Jamarra Ugle-Hagan right now.

Ugle-Hagan, 22, is currently “undertaking flexible training arrangements as he deals with personal issues” and will not travel to Noosa with the playing group for their pre-season camp on Friday.

The club’s acting head of football, Sam Power, says a supportive approach is being taken by the Dogs as they prioritise the wellbeing of the former No.1 draft pick.

“We’re in constant dialogue with Jamarra,” Power said on SEN’s Whateley.

“Really the priority at the moment with him is his welfare and what we can do as a football club to support him.

“He’s clearly got some personal issues and some challenges that he’s working through. The important thing for us as a club at the moment is to be able to provide that support for Jamarra and have regular communication with him and his family and also his manager (Robbie D’Orazio).”

Power further emphasised that training full-time in preparation for the impending 2025 season is just not high on the agenda for the talented forward.

“The training and the playing side is not the number one priority at the moment,” he added.

“The priority really is to support him through these challenges for him to be able to deal with the different things he’s facing to hopefully overcome those.

“From a short-term perceptive it’s really about support and welfare and that’s why we’ve got a training program for him at the moment that has got flexibility where there is a portion of that off-site. There is flexibility for him to be in at the club on different days.

“We feel at the moment with all the information that that’s the best program for him and that will continue with him not travelling with the playing group up to Noosa for our camp.”

The club’s GM of list and recruiting, who is in the GM of footy role on an interim basis, was asked if these are new challenges that Ugle-Hagan is dealing with, or if they have been well-understood and recognised by the club over a number of years.

“They’re not all new challenges,” Power replied.

“We’re dealing with information and changes come up all the time. Some of these challenges have been present for a little bit and it’s always just trying to strike the right balance so it gets to a point where we need to step back from the football and training element of it.

“We clearly want to set Jamarra up medium-to-longer-term to really excel on the field.

“But right now the focus isn’t on that training and playing side and being in the full-time program with our playing group, it’s really to support him through the different challenges which there are different layers to.”

How long is the club expecting this to be the case with Ugle-Hagan?

“We aren’t putting a timeframe on Jamarra in terms of when he might be playing or back in full-time,” Power said further.

“It’s really difficult to put a timeline on that at the moment. Clearly with all our decisions in the short-term around his wellbeing is that we want to set him up in the right way to succeed on the field for the medium-to-longer-term.

“We’re really hopeful that Jamarra is still going to play a really important role for us this year.

“But we don’t have a timeline on that at the moment.”

Power also commented on a number of other topics surrounding the Dogs, including coach Luke Beveridge’s contract, Tim English’s abdominal injury, Jason Johannisen’s hamstring strain, the latest on Aaron Naughton and more.

Listen to the full chat with Power below: