Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge’s forthright comments on Jamarra Ugle-Hagan paint a dark picture for his future at the club

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has cast doubt over troubled forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan being at the club in 2026, revealing the pair are no longer in communication and suggesting a “restart” next year could be needed for the former No.1 pick. Ugle-Hagan, who hasn’t played in 2025 amid considerable personal struggles, hasn’t been at the club for “a few weeks” and was recently caught up in a nightclub shooting in Melbourne. Ugle-Hagan was outside the club when a gun was fired, and there is no suggestion he did anything wrong in the incident. Beveridge was reluctant to delve into the details of Ugle-Hagan’s current personal circumstances but with his situation now being handled by others, including the AFL, said he hoped there would come a time when he played AFL again. There’s a growing sense that’s unlikely to be at the Bulldogs, however, despite the 23-year-old being contracted until the end of 2026. “It remains to be seen,” Beveridge said on Friday when asked whether Ugle-Hagan would be with the Bulldogs next season. “There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge and things to consider, so I can’t say definitively whether it’s here or somewhere else. “I‘d love Marra to be here if he’s at his best. Ultimately, in an AFL program, you have to be joining in all the time. If the restart gets him there, it would be a great thing for the club and for him. We’ll see how we go.” Ugle-Hagan this week said he was “lucky to be alive” after a bullet missed him by about a metre in a weekend shooting at the Love Machine nightclub. It was one of several incidents he’s been caught up during 2025, having been sent away from the Bulldogs to address personal issues, and also spent time at a wellness retreat in northern NSW earlier this year. Beveridge said he and the Bulldogs had done what they could to “eliminate risk” in Ugle-Hagan’s life, but there was only so much they could do. “It doesn’t matter what workplace you are in, when people who you are working with are going through difficulties in their life, you go through those periods of mitigating the risk for them, trying to help them and maybe eliminating some risk and putting them down the right path,” he said. “All you do is try and help which we have been trying to do with Marra. He’s been doing his best to help himself and we feel like he’s made some inroads. “I think starting afresh next year is a good thing to think about and consider.” Beveridge, who said he was now at arm’s length from the matter, wants to see Ugle-Hagan back at AFL level but put the matter back in the player’s hands. “We haven’t seen him for a couple of weeks,” he said. “He seems like he is healthy enough and he is training on. I’m just hoping that at end of it all there’s an opportunity for him to play AFL footy next year.”