Gold Coast forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan has revealed that the AFL urged him to go to rehab amid a tumultuous 2025 season if he wanted to return to the top-flight competition.
Ugle-Hagan was battling with personal issues at the end of 2024, culminating in him missing the entirety of last year as a Western Bulldogs player.
The 23-year-old has been open with his mental health battles, which included attending a rehab clinic in Byron Bay for four weeks.
"I actually got told to do it (rehab) by the AFL, for me to come back and play games," Ugle-Hagan told the Herald Sun.
"I always thought that I was going to play AFL again. It's just that I just had a different mindset.
"Unfortunately, I was on antidepressants, and I just was so numb to everything.
"I wasn't myself. I didn't have that right bubble.
"I was so numb to emotions, feelings I didn't know that was affecting things around me, because of just the way I was and the environments I was hanging around with.
"I had to do work on myself, which was, honestly … I didn't want to do it."
Ugle-Hagan admitted that despite the support and positive encouragement from the Bulldogs, he wasn't in the right frame of mind to receive such help and support.
Bulldogs leaders such as Marcus Bontempelli and Aaron Naughton were constantly checking in, but noted that his relationship with coach Luke Beveridge was strained.
“We didn't really speak all last year," he added. "So it was a bit of a struggle and that was a little bit harder to come in the doors.
“But he's obviously like a respectful man, like old school, but… I wouldn't change a thing. He's driven my career to be the best year I've played."
Ugle-Hagan was subsequently traded to the Suns at the end of last year for Pick 74.
Signing a one-year deal, with contract conditions and a trigger for a second season, the former Pick 1 has shown his worth, earning a club debut in Round 7 against Hawthorn.
Ugle-Hagan's commitment and talent has Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick excited by his future prospects, and is pleasantly surprised with how much he's impressed the club since walking through the doors.
"It was probably the first time I actually spoke about it, I just said to them that at the end of the day, you can read whatever you want to read on social media, but I'd love to show you who I really am," the left-footer explained.
"(I said) ‘I promise you that I'm going to come here and do the best I can'.
"The boys backed me in the first time we saw each other – maybe they had questions, like behind my back, but on the table they all backed me in and said they trusted me and said that would make a better chance for us to win a flag.
"So when I had that and had a bit of belief, it kind of made me feel a lot more supported and actually want to find that want more.
"But no one thought I was going to play AFL football again, but I did it. It was just against all odds, but at the end of the day, it's good that I've got the choices and I've made the right ones now.
"Unfortunately, yes, I made bad decisions, but it still got me to the place where I want to be and need to be."
