Former Hawthorn and Sydney star Lance Franklin has suggested that the best thing for Western Bulldogs star Jamarra Ugle-Hagan could be moving interstate, and the Swans could be a good option.

The 23-year-old has been away from the club as he battles mental health troubles, and while he is still contracted to the Bulldogs until the end of 2026, he is not expected to play this season.

That has sparked questions as to whether he will be able to get his footballing career back on track beyond next year, and if so, where it will be. Franklin, who himself left the Hawks to join Sydney and says getting out of the ‘Melbourne bubble’ might just be what Ugle-Hagan needs.

“I think if you looked at Jamarra and said just football, yes, you’re grabbing him in two seconds, he was a number one pick,” Franklin told the Buddy & Shane Podcast.

“If it was just that, you’d obviously get him to the club, but obviously there’s other stuff going on which is unfortunate. So if you’re a club trying to get him, you’re going to be doing your due diligence … so there’s a lot that’s going to go on with that.

“The biggest thing for Jamarra is that he is happy and healthy.

“With Sydney, if he was able to come there, they’ve got really good leaders. A lot of the boys are from Melbourne, so when they relocate to Sydney, they don’t have family up there, that’s why they’re so close, they literally lean on each other every day.

“If he was to come up there, there’s no doubt he’d fit in really nicely with that group.”

It comes after Channel Nine’s Tom Morris reported that there was currently no interest from any Victorian club to sign the forward.

“Geelong aren’t interested anymore,” Morris told Nine’s Footy Furnace.

“They’ve left the door ajar publicly, but privately, they’re not interested.

“Neither’s Melbourne, I don’t think the Hawks are either. So, if he’s going to continue his career elsewhere, it’s going to be interstate.

(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

“The big sticking point at the moment, the tension between the Dogs and Jamarra and the AFL and everyone else involved … is over his treatment.

“There are disagreements and frustrations around what his treatment looks like and what the course of action is from here, so there’s a lot to play out.

“But he’s nowhere near playing any footy.”

Jon Ralph told Fox Footy’s On the Couch that AFLPA rules protect contracts, so Ugle-Hagan will keep earning his roughly $800,000 salary.

The forward has been on an alternative training program due to his personal issues, but what happens next is in the hands of the AFL.

“The Dogs are despairing, six months on,” Ralph said.

“He barely trains with the club, he hangs with the same friends who are not conducive to an AFL career, he’s not really interested in the counsel from the likes of ‘Buddy’ Franklin or Eddie Betts.

“This is almost unprecedented in modern football, so the club is considering all kinds of options. They want a lightbulb moment.

“So, is it that they don’t pay him for some time or dock some of his pay? Is it an indefinite break from the game – would that help him or hinder him? They are open to all of those discussions.

“Because right now the real fear is not that he won’t return for the Bulldogs – I think they’ve given up all hope on that at the end of the year – it’s that not a single AFL club out there would be interested by the end of the season and he quite quickly could be lost to AFL football.

“It is a massive concern, not for the Dogs in terms of trade value, but for Jamarra Ugle-Hagan’s AFL future.”

Franklin hoped that he was able to get the help and support he needed, particularly as a young Indigenous man, rather than a footballer, with the priority being to focus on his health.

“It’s a tough one because we don’t know the circumstances that he’s in or what’s going on behind the scenes,” he said.

“Like, how sad would it be if we were to lose him to the game and not see him play footy again, which we don’t want to see.

“He needs to make sure he’s getting all the support possible and that he’s happy and healthy and that he’s got good people around him that can support him through that.”