{"id":942884,"date":"2026-10-27T15:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T15:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942884\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T15:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T15:42:16","slug":"afl-news-2026-sydney-swans-dane-rampe-weighing-up-future-after-pullman-five-scandal-jamarra-ugle-hagan-out-of-contract-at-gold-coast-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942884\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Sydney Swans\u2019 Dane Rampe weighing up future after Pullman Five scandal; Jamarra Ugle-Hagan out of contract at Gold Coast Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"

With November nearly upon us, only two players in the AFL<\/a> currently remain in limbo without a contract for 2027 – and for very different reasons.<\/p>\n

Those are Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at Gold Coast<\/a> and Dane Rampe<\/a> at Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sydney\u2019s Dane Rampe.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rampe\u2019s situation at the Swans is simple in some ways and complicated in others.<\/p>\n

The Swans have confirmed they are giving the defender as much time as he needs to decide whether he wants to play on again in 2027.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt they want him back, despite the fact that he will be 37 next year.<\/p>\n

Rampe still played 17 games for Sydney in 2026, was a clear part of their best team and took the reins as captain<\/a> with Callum Mills<\/a> injured and vice-captain Isaac Heeney<\/a> suspended.<\/p>\n

Had the Swans won the premiership, he would have been the man lifting the cup.<\/p>\n

And it would have been a true fairy tale story, given Rampe has played in four losing grand finals<\/a> across his career (2014, 2016, 2022 and 2024) without a win.<\/p>\n

This year looked like it could have been the year everything came together for Sydney. They were approaching finals outright second on the ladder, the Charlie Curnow<\/a> all-in move rewarded them with a Coleman Medallist, Errol Gulden returned from injury in sublime form and coach Dean Cox had the team humming.<\/p>\n

That was all before the Pullman Five<\/a> bomb dropped and, to use the club\u2019s own words, torpedoed their season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rampe had more right than anyone else at the club to be filthy with those teammates for squandering a golden premiership opportunity.<\/p>\n

But despite the suspensions, the remaining Swans rallied through a chip on their shoulder and a burst of energy from young players given a huge opportunity.<\/p>\n

They knocked off eventual premiers Brisbane<\/a> in a qualifying final and led Fremantle<\/a> by five goals on the three quarter time siren in a preliminary final at the SCG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, they melted down in the last quarter and ultimately fell to the Dockers, ending their premiership hopes. For Rampe, it was just another heartbreaking season conclusion for the pile.<\/p>\n

With Heeney<\/a> and Chad Warner back and a top pick in the draft from the Nick Blakey trade<\/a>, the Swans should have the ammunition to contend again in 2027.<\/p>\n

For Rampe, the question is whether he has another pre-season and another full campaign left in him after everything he has had to face.<\/p>\n

Ugle-Hagan meanwhile might be forced to earn a new contract via the supplementary selection period.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gold Coast Suns\u2019 Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The Suns had been eager to re-sign the troubled key forward for 2027, but struggled to get a hold of him during the trade period, given he was in Victoria.<\/p>\n

During that time, he reportedly played in a local game without Gold Coast\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n

Ugle-Hagan played just three AFL games in 2026<\/a>, dealing with injury and fitness issues after being traded from the Western Bulldogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He missed the entire 2025 season<\/a> dealing with off-field behavioural issues and mental health problems.<\/p>\n

Gold Coast gave him a chance on a one-year contract, with coach Damien Hardwick<\/a> his biggest supporter internally.<\/p>\n

A contract for 2027 was on the cards, but they may now force Ugle-Hagan to train with the club over summer before offering him the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With November nearly upon us, only two players in the AFL currently remain in limbo without a contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-942884","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\/942884","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=942884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}