Western Bulldogs head coach Luke Beveridge has revealed his heartbreak over departed star Jamarra Ugle-Hagan off the back of an incredibly troubled season.<\/p>\n
Dealing with a wide range of off-season demons, Ugle-Hagan failed to make a single AFL appearance over the course of the year before being traded to Gold Coast in exchange for Pick 74.<\/p>\n
Now, having spent the off-season with the Suns, Beveridge opened up on the club’s inability to help the former No.1 Pick, expressing the difficulties faced on a personal note.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just lost his way off-field,\u201d Beveridge told News Corp.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were obviously really concerned about it, and we are broken-hearted about it to a degree because we cared so much for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think all of us just hope he is finding his way. And then he can play.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you can\u2019t control the bad influences in someone\u2019s life. And the vices they end up becoming vulnerable too.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we just hope he is going to be able to cleanse himself of all that and find his best footy again, and there will be no one happier than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given Beveridge’s comments, SEN’s Kane Cornes wonders whether the disappointment of 2025 has been swept over too comfortably.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been as honest as we\u2019ve probably heard,\u201d Cornes told SEN Fireball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was waiting for this honesty, albeit it was a really difficult situation last year, as we were all going, \u2018what is going on with Jamarra?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHave we just gone okay, \u2018Jamarra looks fit, they\u2019ve put some good social media videos up of him\u2026 away we go?’<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we being a bit blas\u00e9 about this just because we focus on the footy, he looks good and happy and all of that? Are we sure? Are we certain?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was my point on Friday \u2013 for him to spend a month in the VFL, to really make him earn his spot. The mentions of the rehabilitation facility that he was in last year \u2013 it was some pretty harrowing stuff from Bevo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-host David King had a slightly different take.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can understand from the Western Bulldogs\u2019 point of view \u2013 they tried everything, and they want to tell you what they\u2019ve tried, because in the end it didn\u2019t work and it\u2019s cost them an important piece in their premiership push,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a better team with him playing seven out of 10 footy for that football club, it frees them up for a key forward to go back as a key defender.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m coming at this from an opposite angle. I want you to be positive with this. These second chance opportunities\u2026 he is not getting a third. This is it. I think he knows that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it happen a lot through the course of history \u2013 second club players taking their opportunity. All the conversation is, \u2018if he could have done this at the Dogs\u2026\u2019 he didn\u2019t do it at the Dogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to move on from that. It didn\u2019t work out. Give this kid a chance!\u201d<\/p>\n
Cornes: \u201cI want him to earn that second chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
King: \u201cHe\u2019s doing that, isn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cornes: \u201cI want them to really make him earn it. Beveridge says, we did support him, but there are things that are out of your control. He\u2019s saying a lot without giving too much away here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a serious, serious issue for this kid off the field, to the point where this footy club with all their resources and everything around him, weren\u2019t able to get him to turn up!<\/p>\n
\u201cSo just to go bang, one pre-season and it\u2019s all fixed\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
King: He was in a bad place. Things weren\u2019t clear for him. I hope he comes out and speaks publicly like he did last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot of challenges. Now, he is by no means clear of all of those \u2013 they would be a work-in-progress every day, but that\u2019s part of redemption. To just keep fronting up.”<\/p>\n
Listen to the full discussion below:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Bulldogs head coach Luke Beveridge has revealed his heartbreak over departed star Jamarra Ugle-Hagan off the back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-467299","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467299","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=467299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}