8 hours Ago By Anna Harrington
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge concedes there is no guarantee Jamarra Ugle-Hagan will be fully back in the fold in the short-term as the key forward works through personal challenges. Key forward Ugle-Hagan, who has spent time away from the Bulldogs over the summer, is regularly training away from the club but won’t be available for Saturday’s season opener against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Ugle-Hagan missed two training sessions this week.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today There have been reports Ugle-Hagan’s relationships with some people at the Bulldogs are strained. Beveridge, who has known former No.1 pick Ugle-Hagan, 22, since he started in the club’s next generation academy as a teenager, wouldn’t be drawn on whether he needed to repair relationships.
“I’ve had a relationship with him the whole way through and it’s been one of care and nurturing and what’s transpired over the recent times, things have changed in relation to his being on campus,” he said. “So as a club and as the team’s moving forward, now we’re trying to bring him back into the tent, and so we’re looking for him to provide energy and commitment to that. “With the challenges he faces, there’s no guarantee that’s going to happen in the short-term.
“I’m trying to stay out of his hair and let others sort of manage a lot of that and help him through it. He just knows that I’m here, and ultimately, we’re hoping that he’s going to be able to invest fully in the future. “So nothing’s really changed, other than he’s not a part of the week-to-week discussion around being part of the team.
” Ugle-Hagan trained with his teammates Thursday but wasn’t at training earlier in the week, and Beveridge stressed he might not be at every session. “What we tried to do was normalise your (the media’s) thinking around the flexibility of our thinking that he might be here or he might not,” Beveridge said. “I understand that with the season now here, the start of it, you’re all expecting him to be here all the time and there’s a big chance that he won’t.
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If it’s exception-based (reporting) then hopefully in a month or two, you’re reporting that he’s had a really good block of four or five weeks, there might be a chance he’s playing state league footy, and that’s what we’re doing. “We can’t control the narrative and the noise around Marra but what I will say is that I can’t guarantee next week that he is here every session, or the week after. “.
.. We’re just business as usual, carrying on into the future and looking to help him with his life challenges, as much as his footy challenges.
” Beveridge couldn’t provide detail around what Ugle-Hagan, who kicked 43 goals last year, needed to tick off to be eligible for selection again. “You can’t really put a defining quantum, you can’t actually pin it down, because there’s too much uncertainty,” he said. Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy will lead the Bulldogs’ attack against North in an otherwise smaller forward line.
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