‘You always get it’: Jamarra Ugle-Hagan on constant racial abuse

Ugle-Hagan says Indigenous footy prospects need to back themselves

Jake Niall

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan says he and other Indigenous players would cop a racially abusive message online after every game, but that he does not allow the abuse to bother him.

Speaking to this masthead before Sir Doug Nicholls Round, Ugle-Hagan said he did not screenshot the abuse he received nor put it out to the public.

Online abuse – much of it from anonymous trolls – has become the new frontier for racism directed at Indigenous and players of African descent in the AFL.

“You always get it. I feel like any indigenous player or multicultural person cops a message after every game,” said Ugle-Hagan, who emulated Nicky Winmar’s famed stand by lifting his jumper up and pointing to his skin in the days after he was racially abused by someone in the crowd at a Bulldogs game.

“But (I) just never ever screenshot it and put out there publicly. You avoid it.”

Ugle-Hagan’s response to abuse in the early rounds of 2023 came three decades years after Winmar’s public stand after a game at Collingwood’s Victoria Park.

In the same interview in Darwin, Ugle-Hagan recounted how he had come back from the depths of 2025, when he spent four months in a Byron Bay rehabilitation facility and had been barred from playing and training by the AFL, which he felt was unfair and detrimental to his welfare.

Ugle-Hagan said he had become “numb” to abuse after his difficult 2025 season, when he took a break from football, entered rehab for four months and then left the Bulldogs, subsequently crossing to the Gold Coast Suns.

“I don’t listen to any of that,” he said. “I copped so much last year that, like, all this stuff is just so numb for me…it’s just like ‘don’t let it affect me.’”

Ugle-Hagan said the level of attention he had received from the public and media was enormous – that he was “probably the most talked about player” in 2025, and that it would not have been beneficial for him to have joined Collingwood, given the club’s size and profile.

“Because you imagine if I didn’t go to Gold Coast and I went to Collingwood or something, like I don’t think that would have helped me at all.” He added that Collingwood “is a great team.”

While the next generation academy system has been contentious – and much criticised within clubs and recruiters in the AFL for the outcomes for Indigenous players and multicultural players – Ugle-Hagan, pick No.1 in the 2020 draft, said he would not have been drafted if not for his NGA program with the Bulldogs.

“My little brother’s in the NGA at the moment for Geelong Cats,” said Ugle-Hagan, a Noongar-Gunditjmara-Djab-Wurrung man.

“But I went through the Bulldog system….without them, I would never have got drafted, for sure.

“Because they came in to my school and trained me like, once a week on my kicking because my kicking was horrible, and they put time and effort into me to get drafted.”

As the AFL grapples with the issue of declining numbers of Indigenous players in the competition, and the difficulty of getting remote players to be drafted, Ugle-Hagan said the Indigenous kids needed to believe in themselves more.

“I feel that every kid deserves an opportunity, but it’s just on the kid if they take it. …NGA we had 50 players, I reckon, once at the Bulldogs, and it got down to three, and then it got down to two that got drafted.

“So it’s about it’s honestly, it’s about the person, if they want it more or not, like it’s their choice.”

Ugle-Hagan said making the AFL was hard. “They just got to believe in themselves a bit more, like they probably don’t think it’s true…we’ve got Jy Farrar, who’s from a small as community down in WA. He wouldn’t have thought he was going to get drafted, but he just kept chasing his dream.”

Ugle-Hagan said Indigenous kids who were given scholarships to APS schools in Victoria would get homesick, but he had “definitely” gained much from boarding at Scotch College (on a scholarship) when he left Framlingham, near Warrnambool, in year nine.

“It’s obviously helped me with how I present as well and even how I speak, like my terminology and my education is a lot better. But then I just think it’s opened up more opportunities.“

Ugle-Hagan did not play in last Friday’s Suns v Port Adelaide game and was a late withdrawal from training with an ankle injury.

Proposed AFL Commission changes to impact former CEO McLachlan

Peter Ryan

Former AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan would not be eligible to sit on the AFL Commission until 2032 under a suite of proposed changes to the AFL constitution aimed at setting term limits for members of the 10-member board.

Under a proposal sent to clubs for feedback a former AFL CEO would not be eligible to sit on the commission for nine years after their departure from the top executive role.

McLachlan finished up as AFL CEO in 2023 and joined the publicly listed Tabcorp Holdings in August 2024 where he continues as CEO.

The league’s proposal is not an unusual practice in corporate governance as it allows a cooling-off period to occur after a CEO resigns to give new leadership clean air to operate without the presence of a recently departed executive on the board.

The nine-year non-eligibility period is in line with the proposed nine-year term limits for members of the AFL Commission and just one part of a suite of changes already flagged by incoming commission chair Craig Drummond.

McLachlan has not indicated any desire to join the commission since finishing up at the AFL however he is considered a quality sports administrator.

Drummond, who was Geelong president from 2021-2024, officially joined the AFL Commission as chair in March after an elongated process to find a replacement for former chair Richard Goyder. Frustrated clubs criticised the lack of succession planning.

Under the proposals being considered two current commission members would need to relinquish their position at the end of 2026 with five changes expected to occur gradually by the end of 2028.

The term limit for future AFL Commission members being proposed would be nine years or three three-year terms either served consecutively or non-consecutively with the potential for terms to be lengthened if a serving commissioner was appointed chair.

Five current members of the AFL Commission were appointed in 2017 or before with Paul Bassat the longest serving member having served on the commission since 2012.

The reform to the constitution needs the endorsement of three quarters of the 18 existing clubs to be passed with hopes the proposals would pass at the end of June.

The AFL Commission’s existing structure began in 1993 when clubs handed authority over to the league to make decisions in the best interests of the game.

There has not been a former AFL CEO serve on the AFL Commission.

Dons lose Wright ahead of crunch AFL fortnight

Essendon have lost ruckman Peter Wright to a knee injury ahead of a crunch three-match period against lowly Richmond, West Coast and Carlton.

Dons coach Brad Scott confirmed that Wright would miss at least one game after scans confirmed he sustained knee ligament damage in Sunday’s 43-point loss to Fremantle.

“Yeah, it’s not good,” Scott said on Fox Footy.

“In the first quarter he actually got a knock in the knee in the ruck…he managed to play out the game under some duress, but the scans have shown a bit of PCL and MCL damage.

“He definitely won’t play this week. We’re hopeful it’s only a couple of weeks.”

The injury blow came as club legend Matthew Lloyd warned the Bombers are in “crisis”, outlining concerns over Scott’s future as coach heading into a crucial time for the beleaguered club.

The Bombers (1-9) face Richmond on Friday night in a Dreamtime clash between the bottom two sides on the ladder, before taking on West Coast in Perth.

“It’s a big fortnight for them,” Lloyd told the AFL website.

“I’d hate to think what happens, in terms of for Brad Scott, if they are to lose to Richmond because I just think that’s a win that they’ve just got to pencil in and win.

“That will just show them where they’re at both internally and externally as a club.”
– Scott Spits and AAP

Tigers ditch ‘fully ticketed’ status for Dreamtime

A crowd of more than 70,000 is forecast for Friday night’s Dreamtime at the ’G clash between fallen giants Richmond and Essendon after the Tigers reversed an earlier decision to make it a fully ticketed match.

The AFL prediction of 72,000 comes with both clubs rebuilding their lists and occupying the bottom two spots on the ladder with a 1-9 win-loss record.

To make matters worse, the Tigers are struggling to name 26 fit players. Football boss Tim Livingstone checked last week with the AFL about the process if they needed to call on state league players for reinforcement.

The Bombers lost to Fremantle in front of a paltry MCG crowd of 25,100 on Sunday, while Richmond suffered a 36-point loss to St Kilda in front of 31,000 fans at Marvel Stadium.

The Dreamtime match was initially the only Richmond home game slated to be fully ticketed this season.

“Initially, due to high demand of Dreamtime at the ’G matches, this game was deemed fully ticketed to ensure all fans could enjoy the blockbuster experience,” the Tigers said on their website.

“The club, in conjunction with the AFL, has since decided to open this game to general admission walk-ups.”

Footy fans complained early in the season about paying extra for a reserved seat if they were not seasonal reserve seat holders, amid inflationary pressures on household budgets and escalating fuel costs.

Last year’s Dreamtime match attracted 76,051 people, down from 79,359 in 2024. The lowest post-COVID crowd was 70,226 in 2022.

Richmond are certain to make one change after defender Campbell Gray hurt his hamstring against the Saints, but if necessary they could make as many as four changes and still name a team of 23 and three emergencies.

Mykelti Lefau, Samson Ryan, Jasper Alger and Kaleb Smith are all likely to be available for selection. Tom Sims is nearing a return via the VFL, but the Tigers are still determining his return to play schedule.

Nick Vlastuin was not cited by the match review officer for a dangerous tackle on Saint Ryan Byrnes.

Byrnes received a free kick but his head did not hit the ground and played on.

Luke Trainor (dislocated finger) and Sam Grjl (corkie) are both expected to be fit.

Steely Green had a scan on his thumb on Monday, but the Tigers expect him to be available, too.

One day, two games: AFL locks in double-headers

Carlton and St Kilda will launch the 2026 AFLW season with a double-header at Marvel Stadium featuring both the women’s and men’s teams for the annual “Spud’s Game” on August 9.

The bold play to start the 11th AFLW season was confirmed by the league’s executive general manager of football Laura Kane on Monday.

The event is the first of five double-headers set to take place while the AFLW and AFL seasons overlap. The women’s game between St Kilda and Carlton will start at 4.35pm, before their round 22 men’s match at 7.20pm.

Double-headers have their lovers and their haters; some argue they give the women’s game greater spotlight in front of a larger and different audience and a chance to play in bigger, better venues.

However, critics argue only the most diehard footy fans are willing to sit in a stadium for six hours, risking a poor crowd for the curtain-raiser.

“Success looks like lots of people coming, lots of people watching, the players integrating, and fans of these two clubs seeing both of their teams at Marvel Stadium back to back,” Kane said.

”I was asked a few things by the players, our captains in particular … and they wanted to play rep footy, they wanted to play double-headers with the boys, and they wanted to play in stadiums like this one [Marvel], so they have to come up with a few more things for us to get our skates on with the next year.”

The fixture announcement comes in a big week for AFLW, with coaching changes locked in at Hawthorn and Richmond and the league confirming there will be an AFLW v Ireland representative footy clash on August 1.

With 46 Irish players across the AFLW competition, the game will marks the first AFLW representative fixture since the Victoria played the Allies in 2017.

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