Coaching greats calls on AFL world to give Ugle-Hagan ‘time to breathe’

Source : ABC NEWS

Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos has called on the AFL world to give Western Bulldogs star forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan some space to breathe in light of him taking time away from the club.

“Let’s give him some breathing space, and let’s just treat him as a human being for the next X amount of months, not Jamarra the footballer. Jamarra the human being,” Roos said on ABC AFL Daily.

“Let’s give the young man some time to breathe.”

The comments come off the back of former No.1 draft pick Ugle-Hagan taking an indefinite period of leave from the Bulldogs and his AFL career for personal reasons.

Ugle-Hagan has not played a game at any level this year and only trained sporadically with the Bulldogs.

As part of his medical management plan he was to step away from Whitten Oval entirely while his playing career is put on hold.

Bulldogs’ football manager Sam Power said “Jamarra’s health and wellbeing remains the absolute priority” and “he will be given whatever time he needs”.

“We will continue to support Jamarra throughout this period.” he said via a club statement.

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Roos said it was hard for fans to comprehend the whole situation because they never know what’s truly going on with players.

“But they’re all human beings. They all have families, they all have other problems. They all have complexities outside (footy) to varying degrees,” Roos said.

“Some of the conversations that coaches will have with players, you’d be staggered.”

Carlton star forward Harry McKay took three weeks’ personal leave from the Blues’ senior side this season after struggling with mental health issues.

McKay said he felt like he had to “put on a bit of a facade to pretend to be OK when I really wasn’t”.

“And that was really hard,” McKay said on the Ben and Harry podcast.

“Especially as someone, as you’d know, as a male and as someone who would hang their hat on always turning up, being stoic, pushing through … but I had to put my hand up and say I needed some help.”

Roos added that despite some players having talent in spades, the desire to play AFL isn’t there.

“When you’re talking about players health, we don’t know exactly what’s happened. So it’s really hard to talk about,” Roos said.

“But what I will say, this is not just for Jamarra … I’m trying to generalise here … Not everyone wants to play football, and I know that surprises everyone.

“Everyone sort of thinks, ‘Oh, geez, you know. Must be so exciting.’ Yeah, it is. But I’ve coached players that got drafted because they were so talented and they just didn’t really want to play.”

He said while many people live and die by the game — including players, fans and media — some people just don’t want to play the game.

“I’m taking the Jamara out of that for a minute, (and) I’m just trying to give people an understanding that this is not unusual, in a broad sense. There’s just simply players that don’t really want to play the game, it doesn’t suit them.”

Roos said without knowing Ugle-Hagan’s particular situation, his actions suggest he doesn’t want to play AFL football, and that’s ok.

“What I’m saying to everyone is, that’s okay. That is okay. Let him go and sort himself out with the help of the Bulldogs,” he said.

“AFL is really important. I spent 40 years in it, but it’s not that important. It’s hard to tell supporters and I know how emotional I get … But in the context of life, it is not that important.”

After reporters waited outside the club to see if Ugle-Hagan attended training — while he was on his modified program — and media would comb through his social media, Roos said removing himself from the football space for a while was probably the best call.

It would, he hoped, give the young player a breather from the intensity of the footy world.