Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has made his strongest comments yet on Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, suggesting things could “come to a head” if there is no change in the star forward's situation.
Despite not having played a game this season as he spends time away from the club to deal with personal issues, Ugle-Hagan's absence has dominated headlines and lingered over the Bulldogs' campaign.
Reports have suggested that the situation between player and club could be becoming untenable and, now, for the first time, Beveridge appeared to have conceded as much.
MORE: The latest AFL injury news
“We hope he is connecting with the medical experts and from time-to-time our practitioners and that the penny will drop at some point, and we can turn it around,” Beveridge said an interview with the Herald Sun.
“But if it doesn’t happen over the remainder of the season, then I don’t know. It will probably come to a head.”
What exactly that means remains to be seen, but there is a growing impression that the former number one pick will not be at the Bulldogs beyond 2025.
Beveridge also admitted he wasn't convinced the 67-gamer still had the desire to play AFL.
“I don’t know, that is the serious answer. He will tell you he does, but the actions don’t back the words up,” he said, later adding:
“You can’t choose which days you don’t come.”
Beveridge's comments follow those of Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains on Thursday, who was adamant the club remains committed to supporting the talented left-footer.
“We’re clearly dealing with a very challenging situation - we’ve got a young 23-year-old man who’s dealing with complex personal challenges, so our only concern right now is supporting him and assisting with his health and wellbeing,” Bains said on SEN.
“It really comes back to supporting him as best we can as a young man who’s obviously struggling with a lot of things at the moment.”
Despite being away from the club, Ugle-Hagan has remained active on social media, sharing posts of himself in the gym and out with friends.
Bains said, as far as he was concerned, there was no thought being given to letting Ugle-Hagan go.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that point [of cutting ties] with him, and that’s not occupying any of our thoughts,” he said.
“There’s often a rush for final judgement on this, but we’ve only completed six rounds and Marra is contracted to the end of next year, so our focus is very much just on supporting him from a medical perspective and helping him get to where he needs to get to.
“We need to ensure that he’s doing absolutely everything he needs to do to help himself, and that’s part of the juggle and the challenge.
“Our focus has to be supporting him as a person. Football’s a fair way off at this point in time and not a consideration for us at all.”
Ugle-Hagan hasn't played since the club's elimination final exit to Hawthorn last year, a season in which he kicked a career-best 43 goals.
The Bulldogs have begun the 2025 campaign with a 3-3 record ahead of a clash with rivals GWS on Sunday.
Ugle-Hagan's absence had been largely mitigated by the emergence of Sam Darcy as one of the game's premier attacking forces but he'll miss at least two months with a knee injury.