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The Western Bulldogs are still “really hopeful” that Jamarra Ugle-Hagan will play a role in 2025, despite confirming that he will be absent from the pre-season camp to Noosa this week.
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Ugle-Hagan has been on a “flexible” training program over the pre-season as he continues to deal with complex personal issues, but doubts are growing over his availability to feature early in the 2025 season.
Interim Bulldogs footy boss Sam Power said Ugle-Hagan’s personal issues were “not all new challenges” and that some of those challenges “have been present for a little bit”.
“He’s got some personal issues and some challenges that he’s working through and the important thing for us, the club at the moment, is to be able to provide that support to Jamarra and have regular communications with him, his family and also with his manager,” Sam Power said on SEN on Thursday morning.
“The training and the playing side is not the number one priority at the moment. The priority really is to support him through these challenges, to begin to be able to deal with the different things he’s facing.
“From a short-term perspective, it’s really the support and the welfare and that’s why we’ve got a training program for him at the moment that’s got flexibility.”
Power said the club wasn’t putting a timeframe on Ugle-Hagan’s return and that the club remained hopeful he would play a crucial role in their 2025 season.
“We aren’t putting a timeframe on Jamarra at the moment… we’re really hopeful that Jamarra is going to still play a really important role for us this year, but we don’t have a timeline on that at the moment,” Power said.
“There are always complexities… you’re trying to update the staff and the players as much as you can. I think the bottom line comes back to the players have genuine care for Jamarra and they’re supportive there. A lot would’ve been reaching out to him over the last period.”
Fox Footy presenter Gerard Whateley said the Ugle-Hagan issue “now feels longer term than it has done previously”.
“There was an interruption in the lead up to the elimination final and exactly where it left him on the field that night, I think that was an issue that the Bulldogs fronted up to address and maybe hoped that there would be progress by now,” Whateley said.
“The tone of that feels long term. He’s not going to be part of the early 2025 season and while they hope he’ll play a major role; this is the moment where all of what’s going on has to be corrected to give Jamarra the best chance at his professional football career.
“I doubt that this is a week-to-week proposition anymore.”
Elsewhere, Power said coach Luke Beveridge was feeling “energised and refreshed” as he enters the final year of his contract, while ruck Tim English is “tracking well” after an abdominal injury.
English has had a strong pre-season to date but will be on a modified non-contact program for the “next week or two”, while defender Jason Johannisen is set to miss the next few months due to a hamstring injury.
In better news, key forward Aaron Naughton is expected to play some minutes in the club’s upcoming match simulation in Noosa, while draftee Sam Davidson has been “really impressive” and has caught the eye with his endurance and speed.
