Young Hawthorn utility Finn Maginness understands that breaking into the Hawthorn starting side this year will be tough, especially with the depth that the Hawks currently have at their disposal for the 2025 AFL season.
"On a personal level, I want to cement a spot," he said.
โI want to get to a stage in my career where I'm playing every week and managing to lock down a spot wherever the team needs me is my number one goal.โ
Speaking on the Talking Hawks Podcast, Maginness, entering his sixth AFL season, discussed how the Hawks are looking to use the pain of the preliminary final loss to Port Adelaide, as well as the momentum that they rode throughout the latter part of the 2024 season to help propel them towards a potential premiership this year.
"We just weren't good enough on the day," he said.
โWe gear up again for the following season, but that was heartbreaking.
โYou find yourself looking back at the game a lot, at what we could have done that was different.โ
Maginness has spent time this pre-season working on his disposal and his footballing crafts to improve his game ahead of a big season for the Hawks.
He credits Hawks opposition analysis coach David Mackay for helping his transformation.
โA lot of the crafts, decision making, execution by foot, I do a lot of that work with DMac," Maginness said.
โHis knowledge is second to none, except maybe behind Sam's, because no one's smarter than Sam when it comes to footyโ, he joked.
The 24-year-old opened up on his axing from the senior team after featuring in eight of the first nine games and how he focused on returning to the starting team.
Maginness returned to the Hawks side for the Round 24 victory against North Melbourne, which helped secure an unlikely finals tilt for the Waverley side.
A fortnight later, in arguably one of his best performances in the brown and gold, he featured in the Hawks' elimination final victory over the Western Bulldogs.
"It was really good for my confidence," he said.
โIn finals, the pressure and fatigue was through the roof and I feel like a few of those key aspects of the game like physicality, the fatigue that sort of suited me and my athletic profile.โ
The utility, who featured heavily as a tagger during the latter part of the Hawks' 2023 season, discussed the joy he got out of playing the role and even hinted that he would like to be able to play tagger again if given a chance.
โEarly days that's how I got my games and I loved doing that," he said.
โI love that challenge. I'd love to do that again at some stage, especially in big games, when the game is really on the line.โ
With new arrival Josh Battle featuring in the brown and gold for the first time on Monday in the Hawks practice match, Maginness spoke about his importance to the backline this year.
โHe was super to play with," the Hawks midfielder added.
โJust his voice from behind the ball, you can just tell that he's an experienced cool head on his shoulders."
With the attention and focus on Will Day being prominent, Maginness hinted that another Hawk midfielder - Cameron Mackenzie - is one that will feature prominently and potentially star throughout 2025.
โCam's really stepped up too. A bit of a watch this space. He'll slot in nicely this year and play some good footy for sure," Maginness said.
The Hawks travel to Launceston this week where they will have their final hit out before the start of the season, taking on the Western Bulldogs.
The team will be looking to play their game style and employ the defensive structures that will hopefully hold them in good stead as they look to repeat last year's finals appearance.
โTaking practice matches seriously is really important because you want to get in good habits well before Round 1," he said.
โWe want to move the ball the way we want to move it and defend how we want to defend.
โIt's not something that you can really switch on and off.โ
With expectations rising from fans and media pundits, the team knows the importance of getting the start right this season.
โEvery game is important and I think last year we sort of learned that, that if we'd won a few more of those early ones that were gettable, we could have finished higher than sixth on the ladder heading into the finals," Maginness added.
The Hawks open their season on March 7 when they take on last year's grand finalist the Sydney Swans in Opening Round at the SCG.
To hear the whole interview with Finn Maginness on the Talking Hawks Podcast, click HERE.
