The Warlord
RuSsIa iS BaD
- Aug 21, 2018
- 30,288
- 76,612
- AFL Club
- North Melbourne
Clubs are spewing that the Dogs are getting first dibs and a discount on Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
This is just sour grapes - every Vic club has got/will get a gun for massive unders via the NGA.
The question is whether the Dogs can keep him. Their own President admits they have a significant cultural problem when it comes to indigenous players, and it has cost them recruits.
It is not at all difficult to envisage a scenario where one of the Melbourne clubs with strong indigenous representation and a respected history working with indigenous players like Richmond, North or Essendon making a big play.
Especially if there's cultural issues early on for Ugle-Hagan.
He may well go on to play 300 games for the Dogs, but at the moment, it looks like a real issue for them.
This is just sour grapes - every Vic club has got/will get a gun for massive unders via the NGA.
The question is whether the Dogs can keep him. Their own President admits they have a significant cultural problem when it comes to indigenous players, and it has cost them recruits.
It is the third time in as many years that the Dogs have failed to recruit an indigenous talent, largely because they do not have any indigenous players on their list.
In 2017 they heavily pursued Port Adelaide utility Jarman Impey, who dined with Bulldog leaders including Marcus Bontempelli at Crown Casino as he mulled their contract offer.
Impey’s close friend, Jackson Trengove, had signed at the Dogs as a free agent in recent weeks and was pushing Impey to join him.
But when Impey learned that there weren’t any indigenous players at the Bulldogs he instead accepted Hawthorn’s offer, where he played alongside superstars Cyril Rioli and Shaun Burgoyne.
The following year Chad Wingard was choosing between the Dogs and Hawks, but with Impey at Waverley Park and still no indigenous stars at the Dogs, the dual All-Australian picked Hawthorn.
Dogs president Peter Gordon has conceded that the club’s lack of indigenous players was likely to have dented their hopes of landing Wingard.
It is not at all difficult to envisage a scenario where one of the Melbourne clubs with strong indigenous representation and a respected history working with indigenous players like Richmond, North or Essendon making a big play.
Especially if there's cultural issues early on for Ugle-Hagan.
He may well go on to play 300 games for the Dogs, but at the moment, it looks like a real issue for them.