Western Bulldogs facing costly draft wipeout as Jamarra Ugle-Hagan saga heads south

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan’s time at the Bulldogs could very well soon come to an end. And the price they’ll likely get for him to leave won’t equate to the haul lost to get him, writes SCOTT GULLAN.

It’s the hidden cost of the Jamarra Ugle-Hagan saga.

As it appears more and more likely by the day that the star forward won’t play again for the Western Bulldogs, the ramifications of such a reality reach far and wide.

While obviously losing a No. 1 draft pick who has immense talent is an enormous setback, the price the Dogs gave up to get him becomes an extra bit of heartburn.

Back in 2020, the Dogs recruiting team spent most of the year making sure they had enough points in the AFL’s draft system to match a bid if it came for Ugle-Hagan who was tied to them through their Next Generation Academy.

The Dogs gave up lots of picks to land Jamarra Ugle-Hagan. Picture: Getty Images

In a nutshell they needed lots of draft picks – which each have points allocated to them depending where they fall in the draft – to add up to more than 2400 points which was required to ward off any rival bid.

To do that they orchestrated two trades. The first involved getting Adam Treloar from Collingwood which they did by giving up their first round pick, No. 14, and a future second round pick.

The Pies sent Treloar and draft picks 26, 33 and 42 to the Dogs.

Then to get even more points the Bulldogs sent pick No. 26 to the GWS Giants in exchange for picks 29 and 52.

The end result was the Dogs gave away picks 29, 33, 41, 42, 52, 54, turning them into points to match a bid for Ugle-Hagan at No. 1 which came on draft night by Adelaide.

Then because of all the focus on snaring Ugle-Hagan, the Dogs then didn’t enter the draft again until No. 55 where they selected Dominic Bedendo from the Murray Bushrangers.

He was delisted at the end of last season which means the 2020 draft is going to be a total wipeout for the Dogs should the Ugle-Hagan situation continue to go south.

That’s a big black hole in a club’s list particularly when you think about what they could have done with some of those draft picks.

While it won’t go down as one of the best drafts, there were still some more than handy players available after pick No. 26 which the Dogs could have potentially used.

Collingwood premiership tackling machine Beau McCreery would look pretty good in the Bulldogs forward pocket right now while Corey Durdin is starting to emerge as a handy goalsneak for Carlton.

While injury has hampered him Nathan O’Driscoll’s deadly left-foot will become a weapon for Fremantle and then there are two highly promising key forwards - Geelong’s Shannon Neale and Port Adelaide’s Ollie Lord - who have shown they both have big futures.

Any of those five could have been wearing Western Bulldogs colours if they didn’t have to do the points purge for Ugle-Hagan.

With Sam Darcy likely to miss most of the season because of a knee injury, the absence of Ugle-Hagan is again in the spotlight with one of the game’s greatest ever forwards, Lance Franklin, even giving his thoughts on the disappointing situation at the Whitten Oval.

Franklin, who was Ugle-Hagan’s childhood hero, said clubs would be doing obvious due diligence on the troubled young star whose future in the game remains in limbo.

But the Swans would suit him “nicely” should things crumble further at the Western Bulldogs.

“I think if you looked at Jamarra and said just football, yes, you’re grabbing him in two seconds, he was a number one pick,” Franklin said.

Franklin thinks Ugle-Hagan would be a good fit at Sydney. Picture: Michael Klein

“If it was just that, you’d obviously get him to the club, but obviously there’s other stuff going on which is unfortunate. So if you’re a club trying to get him, you’re going to be doing your due diligence ... so there’s a lot that’s going to go on with that.

“The biggest thing for Jamarra is that he is happy and healthy.

“With Sydney, if he was able to come there, they’ve got really good leaders. A lot of the boys are from Melbourne, so when they relocate to Sydney, they don’t have family up there, that’s why they’re so close, they literally lean on each other every day.

“If he was to come up there, there’s no doubt he’d fit in really nicely with that group.”

Franklin said he hoped Ugle-Hagan, 23, was being supported.

“It’s a tough one, isn’t it, because we don’t know the circumstances that he’s in or what’s going on behind the scenes,” he said on The Buddy and Shane Show podcast.

“Like, how sad would it be if we were to lose him to the game and not see him play footy again? Which we don’t want to see.

“He needs to make sure he’s getting all the support possible and that he’s happy and healthy and that he’s got good people around him that can support him through that.”

Originally published as Western Bulldogs facing costly draft wipeout as Jamarra Ugle-Hagan saga heads south