They’d never laid eyes on each other two years ago, but now Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and Arty Jones know what one another is thinking. They open up on family, culture and racism.
The knowing look often passes between Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and Arthur “Arty” Jones in a team meeting or match review.
The pair might have only met at The Kennel 18 months ago, but they know what one another is thinking.
Call it intuition, connection, extrasensory perception. They call it brotherhood.
Ugle-Hagan, the No.1 draft pick in 2020, had 12 months’ headstart at the Western Bulldogs before Jones arrived at the end of 2021 – all energy and exuberance.
“Ever since he walked through the door, we just connected straight away. That’s what we usually do, as Aboriginal boys. We just always connect, and you feel like home straight away once you’re with a family member,” Ugle-Hagan said.
“Even though he’s from WA and I’m from Warrnambool, it’s pretty crazy how quickly we connected.
“The first thing we do is go and play basketball, or cook up a feed, get a barbie on, get the family over and stuff. It’s just so easy to have conversation.
“It’s not a fake convo. We know what to talk about and laugh about, because we share each other’s languages and stuff and muck around and do heaps of things together.
“Ever since he’s walked through the door, it’s been a lot better for me and made me more of a role model, as well.”
They shared a front door that first year, as housemates with a former club staffer and his partner, and – just like brothers – are the first to rib on who needed to pick up the slack on the housework and how Jones played passenger in the first six months as he saved up for some wheels.
“He won’t say it, but I was a bit annoying,” Jones laughed, all bright eyes and teeth, as the one who was in charge of tunes and directions.
“It’s the little brother role, so I was playing it to the best of my ability. I’d annoy him.
“Whenever we’d hear something funny, we’d give each other a little side-eye. We know straight away we’re thinking the same thing.”
Ugle-Hagan lauds Jones’ natural ability to be himself – even though “he just never stops making noises” – in the face of the taxing AFL environment.
“That’s what I think everyone likes about him – he is himself and doesn’t care if anyone judges him. He just does whatever he wants,” he said.
Including in the kitchen, where Ugle-Hagan reckons his “little bro” could do with a few cooking lessons.
“He’s shocking,” he laughed bluntly, Jones’ reaction a full-body jolt.
“I’m better than him (in the kitchen).
“I can do the basics – I know what not to do.
“One time, he cooked tacos, and he didn’t even put anything in the mince. Just cooked the mince up. I was like, ‘No, you can’t be doing that’. But he’s come a long way. He put it up on his story … I said, ‘Mate that looks shocking, take that down’.
“The only thing he could cook was a good steak – that was it.”
Jones, who has been cooking with gas since his round 3 debut, goes deep, fast.
“Coming in last year and living with him, he really early turned into a big brother,” Jones said.
“Then this year, I got to live out the dream of having a big brother teammate in round 3.
“That was a cherished moment. He’s a teammate but deep down, an older brother.”
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
When Jones’s mum Margie calls him Arthur Blake, Jones knows there’s trouble.
“I’m named after my dad – so I’m Arthur Jones Jr,” he said.
“If it’s mum talking to me, she calls me Blake, which is my middle name. And then if I’m in trouble, she’ll hit me with Arthur Blake, and that’s when I walk, head down, ‘Yes mum’.
“Once we get to know each other, Arty is the way to go.”
The Mt Barker kid with family ties to the Krakouer brothers on his mum’s side started to shape his craft in the south of Western Australia before the plunge of moving to Perth was taken thanks to an opportunity with Wesley College.
As Margie – who stole the show in a post-match interview after her son’s debut – put it, uprooting to move wasn’t about sacrifice, but “an investment”.
“Because he’s our future,” she said.
“For all of us – our mob, our people, our family. He’s a role model to us all – he always has been, always will be.”
Jones, just 19, acknowledged that his path could have been very different.
There’s been struggles. “Dark times”, he said.
“Coming from a small country town, not many opportunities … Mum was working three jobs,” he said.
“God works in mysterious ways and the coin flipped. We got the opportunity to move to Perth, and then from there I was playing footy for Claremont and luckily enough in my Year 11 pre-season, I got approached by Wesley and then got a scholarship to attend that school.
“Everything fell into line and I got offered to play the state game, and got invited to the combine, the draft and boom, bada boom, landed at the Dogs.”
He landed with a bang – a burst of life and zest.
It’s all for Margie and the crew, Jones said.
“I’m a family man, so my achievement is their achievement,” he said.
“Obviously I get to live out my dream, as a kid. But knowing that all the struggles that we went through as young ones, and all the struggles that I went through … knowing that I can achieve something so great coming from a small country town, all my success goes to them and all my love and appreciation.
“One hundred per cent (everything could have been so different). Everything could have been over in the blink of an eye, but someone’s looking after me. Everything fell into line.”
Ugle-Hagan sees moments of one of the game’s most iconic Indigenous stars – in the joy.
“I love every time he gets the ball – you know he’s going to do something good or sick,” Ugle-Hagan said.
“He does remind me of the highlights of Cyril (Rioli) – as soon as he gets the ball, the crowd just gets so rapt.
“They get so filled up with joy and are so excited to see what he’s going to do with the ball. He’s a talented kid, he’s worked hard for it in the off-season, and it’s starting to come out in his game.”
BROTHERLY BOND
Jones was the first one Ugle-Hagan told about those horrific racist comments he endured in round 2.
There was a tear, Ugle-Hagan said, maybe two.
“We couldn’t do anything about it, but we spoke to the club and sorted everything out,” he said.
“He was always the first bloke I would go to and he would always come to me if he ever needed anything or had copped anything.”
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan left Ugle-Hagan a message in the week of the incident, that culminated in the young star lifting his jumper and pointing to his skin in round 3, but Ugle-Hagan doesn’t answer unknown numbers, laughing that he’d catch the boss at some point.
Jones had a front-row seat for the iconic moment.
“The comments to Jamarra in round 2 hurt him, but it hurts the community deeply,” Jones said.
“I was just happy I got to play in round 3 and see the fight back and him stamping and pointing to his skin – it was incredible.
“Sir Doug (Nicholls Round) gives us the opportunity for us to embrace our culture and shining that light a little bit brighter. Hopefully me and him can kick one goal this weekend. As our first Sir Doug rounds, obviously it will be a special one.”
Ugle-Hagan doesn’t read Instagram messages anymore.
There could be 100 positive ones in his inbox.
It’s not worth the risk.
“I just delete them straight away,” he said.
“I’ve turned my story replies off, as well. I prefer to just not cop it. It probably will (happen again).
“But I just don’t want to go down that track. That was the first time I’ve spoken up about those messages. But I’ve copped it I reckon every second game – there would be a bad message from a bot. And that’s just me saying that.
“There’s more Aboriginal players out there – girls and boys – and multicultural that are definitely getting at least one every game, but they just don’t say anything about it because it’s just become a normal thing (for them) or they’re just too ashamed to speak about it.
“When I spoke about it, I felt kind of embarrassed to even say that I copped this. I felt embarrassed to even walk into the club the next day. It was just a weird feeling. But I’ve done nothing (wrong).
“That’s why I got a bit emotional after the game, because it just hit me. Not because of my performance, but because it actually hurt. The comments were shocking. Mum felt the same – that’s her little boy, copping it. I just hope that no one else gets to feel that way.
“I don’t want that happening to any of my little brothers or hopefully my future kids. I’m glad I stood up for it. It’s made an impact.”
CULTURE CLUB
Jones lived on his family’s country for 15 years.
The Yamatji-Menang Noongar man has taught Ugle-Hagan – of the Peek Whurrong people – more about their Indigenous roots, which he said was a benefit of living under a shared roof.
“I’m still learning heaps of stuff, but to have Arty come over and learn his culture … the way he dances and shakes his leg – he just makes you feel even more proud, because he loves it so much,” Ugle-Hagan said.
“He is so proud to be an Aboriginal man. My family, we both have different stories but grew up with the same stuff. We grew up in a small community, and were fortunate enough to get a scholarship to a school and get drafted to play our dream job. It’s just so exciting.
“To just be at this football club is incredible – they’ve supported me since I was 15 and gave me the opportunity to believe that I have a thing to do out of the community. It gave me a door to open – they believed in me and that was it.”
Ugle-Hagan carries his story with him – on his arm.
Ugle-Hagan’s left forearm tells his story, his hands holding a violet flower in tribute to his grandmother.
His four little brothers sit at a campfire, and his four “brothers” from Scotch College are there, too.
“There’s me leaving Fram (Framlingham, the Indigenous community he hails from outside Warrnambool) as emu’s footprints – I used to get called Emu Legs because I had skinny legs,” he said.
“That’s me arriving in Melbourne to go to Scotch and start my own journey, and then me coming back as a man, with man’s footprints, coming back home as a man.
“I’ve got Bunjil, the eagle, and then our totem, which is a Black Cockatoo. It’s pretty cool.”
Their path leads the pair to Darwin on Saturday night.
“Every step that I get to take, I acknowledge my people and family. It’s really deep to my heart,” Jones said.
“(To play in Darwin) pretty special, actually. I was very thankful and grateful that I could play at Ballarat, but this weekend in Darwin, that’s pretty spiritual and a different land that we get to both go on. I’m just looking forward to feeling the different vibes. It’ll be good.”
Originally published as Bulldogs ‘brothers’ Jamarra & Arty: Family, culture and who’s the better cook