Jamarra Ugle-Hagan to make AFL debut for the Western Bulldogs
No. 1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan finally makes his debut against Sydney, as his grandma reveals his biggest asset and Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge the reasons behind his delay.
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Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has revealed No. 1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was close to making his much-anticipated AFL debut earlier this season.
After biding his time in the VFL, Ugle-Hagan will finally get the chance to showcase his immense potential against Sydney on Sunday at Marvel Stadium after fellow high flying forward Aaron Naughton was ruled out with concussion.
The key-forward was in solid form in the twos before sustaining a concussion himself, with his return coinciding with the VFL season being interrupted by Melbourne’s COVID outbreak in late May.
Beveridge said Ugle-Hagan was “close” to making his debut but his concussion setback and lack of competitive football at state level further delayed his maiden opportunity at senior level.
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“He probably got to the point when he was concussed where he was close,” Beveridge said.
He was playing a stronger four quarters but he missed a month because we got shut down and he couldn’t play at state league level either.
“Now he’s worked his way back into his four quarter outlet … and we are confident he will get through the four quarters.”
Beveridge also hailed Ugle-Hagan’s determination to keep persevering through a difficult rookie campaign and finally earn his colours in the senior team.
“Marra was a bit emotional,” Beveridge said.
“His grandma Lee came in and spoke and presented him with his jumper.
“She said when he was four he expressed to her that he wanted to be an AFL player and she was a bit worried that he was going to be disappointed because it doesn’t happen to everyone.
“To his credit, he’s worked really hard. He’s a determined young fella. It’s going to be a day for him, the club and the mob from Framlingham (his hometown).”
Lauded as the next superstar key-forward of the competition, Ugle-Hagan will share the field with his childhood hero Lance Franklin, a player he has long drawn comparisons to throughout his junior career.
“I think for ‘Marra’ being a young kid who has idolised different footballers, Lance has been one of them so that will be special,” Beveridge said.
“We all remember back to playing against the guys we might have had their numbers on our back when we were kids … I’m sure at some point ‘Marra will connect with Lance.”
How Buddy clone handled longest wait in 32 years
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan has used his debut speech to tell his Western Bulldogs teammates that rumours he would ask for a trade were “bulls**t” and he wouldn’t be leaving Whitten Oval.
Alice Ugle burst into tears when her son called with the news that the No. 1 draft pick’s long wait to make his AFL debut would end on Sunday.
“Oh wow, you watch all the mob come down now. And against, Buddy isn’t it?” she said.
The Buddy factor is fitting.
Ugle-Hagan grew up idolising the Sydney superstar and has long been billed as the next version of the game’s most entertaining superstar.
Franklin also made his debut against Sydney in 2005 – he had six disposals for no score – and on Sunday Ugle-Hagan will start his AFL career against the same club.
It was Ugle-Hagan’s 2019 finals series as a bottom-age goalkicker for Oakleigh Chargers which ignited the Buddy talk.
He was the slight left-footer who could bend through impossible goals and soar over packs to bring down hangers.
“It was freakish,” AFL talent boss Kevin Sheehan said.
“When he had kids like (Matthew) Rowell and (Noah) Anderson feeding it to him he looked a pretty special player.”
But Ugle-Hagan, like all Victorian prospects, missed out on 2020 and Sheehan said that was why the Rising Star market was dominated by second-year players or 18-year-olds from interstate.
Essendon’s Nik Cox is really the only local boy to light up his debut season after the 2020 wipeout.
That’s why Sheehan said Western Bulldogs supporters should settle for “glimpses” against the Swans on Sunday.
“All you want to see is a couple of moments,” he said.
This year, Ugle-Hagan has almost been better known for dating Mia Fevola than kicking goals.
It’s been a tough time in the headlines for a kid hoping to find his way and a concussion in May only pushed his footy dream further away.
The 19-year-old has bagged 13 goals in seven VFL games without setting the world on fire.
A bag of 5.2 on a Thursday night against the Giants included a couple of cheapies, and then a set-shot ripper from the boundary against Carlton was followed up by that stalling knock to the head.
The boy from Framlingham gets his chance.
— Western Bulldogs (@westernbulldogs) July 8, 2021
Jamarra's moment â¤ï¸ pic.twitter.com/reH7k3vQAb
Last week he had more tackles (six) than kicks (four) and the week before he was beaten by former Swan Jack Maibaum (Coburg).
But unlike the sometimes-scrubby VFL played on bog heaps, Ugle-Hagan will be stepping into the AFL’s No. 1 forward line where the delivery of Marcus Bontempelli and Lachie Hunter on the slick Marvel Stadium surface will have Footscray’s cohort covered.
This is a much-hyped debut that will transcend football for the Bulldogs.
They have tried and tried for years to recruit indigenous players, but trade targets Chad Wingard and Jarman Impey chose Hawthorn, and draft target Kysaiah Pickett was gone by their first pick in 2019.
Ugle-Hagan will become the first indigenous player to pull on the red, white and blue in 100 games, with Joel Hamling the last to do so in the 2016 Grand Final against Sydney.
Dual premiership indigenous star Travis Varcoe was hired this year as a development coach so he could work with Ugle-Hagan.
And not since Alex McDonald (Hawthorn) in 1988, who had to wait until Round 11 of his second season, has a draft dux been held back for so long.
Jamarra has been the most patient No. 1 pick in 32 years.
Since then, 26 have made their debut by Round 5, with the exceptions being Greater Western Sydney’s Jon Patton (Round 12 in 2012), St Kilda’s Nick Riewoldt (Round 15 in 2001), Fremantle’s Des Headland (Round 13 in 1999), West Coast’s Drew Banfield (Round 15) and now Ugle-Hagan (round 17 in 2021).
However, while almost all of the previous No. 1 picks joined the wooden-spooner, Ugle-Hagan – off the back of playing no football in 2020 – was recruited to a finalist that has spiked to premiership favourites.
Remarkably, Ugle-Hagan will become the ladder-leading Bulldogs’ sixth debutant this season.
Only Collingwood (seven) and Hawthorn (eight) have blooded more – clubs which sit 16th and 17th on the ladder.
The Dogs’ profile is scary for a team on top of the ladder. Taylor Duryea is the only player in the 22 who has turned 30, while boom father-son Sam Darcy, a contender to go No. 1 this year, will line up for Vic Metro in an AFL Challenge match on Friday.
Sheehan said Darcy was up to 204cm and “Paul Salmon-like”, a fitting comparison ahead of his match at Windy Hill.
In 2017-18, the Dogs visited Ugle-Hagan twice a week at Scotch College.
Academy boss David Newton once noticed the leftie only handball right-handed and so out came the Sherrins for left-handed handball drills.
Ugle-Hagan has four younger brothers back home in Framlingham and, under the TAC Cup’s old boundaries, he would’ve qualified for Geelong Falcons and therefore the Cats’ academy.
Boy, Bulldogs fans will be thankful those zones were redistributed by the AFL more than a decade ago.
And for the record, the boy goes by ‘Marra’.
Originally published as Jamarra Ugle-Hagan to make AFL debut for the Western Bulldogs
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