Western Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains has reiterated the Club’s focus on supporting Jamarra Ugle-Hagan’s wellbeing as he works through personal challenges.
Ugle-Hagan has undertaken a flexible training model since January and is not currently available for selection.
Speaking on SEN on Thursday morning, Bains said while there are a number of complexities surrounding the situation, Ugle-Hagan’s wellbeing remains paramount.
“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.
“In doing that we’re guided by the medical professionals, and that's where the greatest intersection with the AFL exists - having the support from the AFL medical team to really assist him in a way that the Club isn’t able to give in its resource availability.
“Those conversations with the AFL have been ongoing for a very long time and within that there are different milestones, and I suppose new conversations around how we continue to support Jamarra.
“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.”
Bains said that despite external speculation there was no urgency from the Club’s perspective with regard to next steps.
“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.”
