Luke Hodge and Dermott Brereton have gone head to head over the development of Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and how to get the best out of the first pick of the 2020 AFL National Draft.
The 20-year-old has only played nine games in the AFL but has struggled at the top level, averaging six disposals and under a goal a game in 2022.
Former Hawthorn forward Dermott Brereton has been watching Ugle-Hagan closely in 2022, and believes the best thing for the forward’s development is to spend some time in the VFL for some “reprogramming”.
“I’ve watched him like I would be doing his match review,” Brereton told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“The first thing I see, the first time it raised my eyebrows was in their first win, Round 3, where they beat Sydney and the number one thing the teammates could talk about with Jamarra was, ‘didn’t he thrust back hard into Dane Rampe and create the spill’.
“I thought, ‘yeah that’s expected, that’s what you want, you expect that of anyone, whether they are highly talented or a scrubber'.
“For a number one, we want him to find the ball, we want him to use his talents, we want him to win more than his fair share in the air of 50/50 balls.
“He’s winning none of those, and last night he had five possessions in a team which had 62 inside 50 entries and the second-best key forward was the captain (Marcus Bontempelli), who was a midfielder.
“Jamarra got one leadup (mark) and well done, but you look at the vision behind the goals and the whole field opened up for him and he led straight at the kicker, there was no thought in it.
“Well done doing that, and I know the coach will defend him, but I think the kid needs reprogramming back in the twos, he needs to be able to find the ball and outstretch everybody and outreach everybody and see the ball and have fun and run to it.
“At the moment he’s too late to read the cues.”
However, former Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge leapt to the defence of Ugle-Hagan, suggesting the youngster has been impacted by the lack of continuity across the past two seasons.
While he accepts that Josh Bruce will reclaim his spot when he returns from an ACL injury after the bye, Hodge is comfortable backing the young prodigy.
“Bevo (Beveridge) doesn’t need to defend him, we will,” Hodge said.
“He’s a kid, he’s in his third year, he’s played nine AFL games and you (Brereton) are right, he does need to learn the game.
“But the most important part for kids when they get drafted is to feel comfortable and the only way you get to feel comfortable out there, whether it’s VFL or seniors, is by getting out there.
“What’s happened to him and a lot of the younger guys who have been drafted over the last two years is they haven’t had continuity in playing games.
“They’ve been in, they’ve been out, seasons have been suspended, they’ve moved interstate to play football and he hasn’t been able to get a game because Bruce, for one, had been sensational until he hurt his knee.”
Facing further questioning from Brereton about whether a five-disposal performance against Brisbane will benefit Ugle-Hagan more than a spell in the reserves, Hodge outlined the key differences between the state league and AFL services that make it harder to develop VFL players.
“He’ll be getting more feedback by playing senior football,” Hodge continued.
“There’s no doubt that when Bruce comes back in he’s probably going to go out, but I reckon at AFL level… he’s going to learn more from playing senior football, whether he has five touches or ten touches because they have five different camera angles they can teach him and sort of show him (what they want to teach).
“That bit of vision that you spoke about, they could sit back and say, ‘That’s perfect, but this is what we need you to do more of’, and they’ll show him other instances where he could have had that lead but he went back, or he didn’t lead up or he didn’t squeeze up or he didn’t push back in.
“At senior level, when you’ve got development coaches looking for you, you’ve got a forward coach, the head coach, he’s got four or five different people that are going to help him develop his game.
“Playing with Aaron Naughton is going to help him… his football isn’t up to senior level at this stage, but I feel for his development, which has been hindered over the last two years.
“Going back to the VFL, because he’s a natural talent, he’s probably going to be better than the VFL defenders, so he probably won’t run the right patterns and he can probably do that stuff that he can’t do at AFL level and still get the ball because he’s better than them (the defenders).”
The Dogs claimed just their second win of the year when pumping North Melbourne on Good Friday by 68** points, Luke Beveridge’s men now entering a stretch of five games in which they’ll likely start favourites in all.
Listen to the full debate between Luke Hodge and Dermott Brereton below