THE LAST time Finn Maginness flew south in Tasmania was traumatic.
There was only enough room on the medevac plane for him, the pilot, a medic and his mum. He vomited the whole way to Hobart, not from the turbulence - although that didn't help - but from the painkillers he had been given after he had lacerated his kidney hours earlier at UTAS Stadium.
On Saturday, Maginness returned to the scene of the incident, where his 2025 season ended against Port Adelaide in round 19. At the same venue, he kickstarted his 2026 campaign in Launceston, producing the highest rated game of his career against Gold Coast, while wearing a custom designed kidney guard strapped to his back.
The 25-year-old was picked for the Opening Round trip to face Greater Western Sydney after returning to full health and fitness by January, but was sent back to Box Hill the following week to build confidence again after the most distressing injury of his life last July.
Now more than nine months on, Maginness has revealed for the first time in graphic detail just how serious the incident was, how long it took to recover and how important Hawthorn's intervention was that night.
Maginness finished that stirring 38-point win over the Power in pain – and finished a brilliant job tagging Zak Butters – but he wasn't overly concerned as he signed autographs, posed for photos and then sung the song in the rooms.
There didn't appear to be a clear incident on the day, but the club found it when they forensically examined the tape afterwards. Calsher Dear flew for a mark and collided with Maginness, who was standing front and centre, ready to crumb. Maginness can joke about it now with Dear, but it quickly became no laughing matter. It wasn't until after Maginness showered that Hawthorn's doctor Liam West intervened.
"I got the hit in the third quarter, and at the time I thought, 'Oh god, I've been winded really badly here'. I sort of felt the air suck out of my lungs and it took me a second to regroup. Then I regrouped and I was alright; I managed to carry out the game. I had a role on Zak Butters, so I was really focused on that," Maginness recalled to AFL.com.au after collecting 24 disposals, 11 contested possessions, 10 score involvements and two goals on Saturday.
"Throughout the last 5-10 minutes of the game, I started to get a bit of pain in my stomach, but it wasn't anything bad enough to stop playing. I thought, 'I've got crook guts'.
"Then after the game, I started to get really cold and like shivering, and I couldn't warm back up. I started to get this shooting pain down through my stomach and it felt like it was shooting almost through my abdomen. That's when I was like, 'Oh, something's not right here'.
"I still thought it's probably nothing too bad, I was umming and ahhing what to do. I went to see Westy and he examined me. He could see how cold I was and told me to go have a shower to warm (myself) up, then urinate and come back in and see him afterwards.
"Then I went to have a warm shower, then I urinated afterwards and it was pretty much just red blood. That that's when I was like, 'Oh God, something's not right'.
"I went back to Westy and he straight away said, 'Look, mate, I know you want to go back to Melbourne tonight, but I don't feel comfortable doing that. You're going to go straight to hospital in Launceston. It's the best thing for you. Best case, if it's nothing, you can fly home tomorrow morning, but you know, we're not going to leave you here'.
"He set it up. [Player Development Manager] Jamie Bennell stayed down with me and my parents were there as well. So that's when we went straight to Launceston hospital to get assessed."
Fortunately, they did.
"I'm incredibly lucky because I was thinking, 'Why don't I just fly back and I'll be at hospital in Melbourne in two hours' time? I'll be fine'," Maginness said.
"Westy was very firm. He said, 'No, absolutely not. This is my domain, I know what's right, we're sending you to Launceston'. I couldn't be more grateful to him, because once I got to Launceston, they did some scans on me, and they did put me on a plane."
A bumpy 50-minute flight to Hobart on a dark and wet night was hastily organised. There was just enough room to squeeze his bag on the flight, although even that had to be negotiated. His mum Anna wasn't going to miss this flight – she made that clear, and she wasn't going anywhere until Finn was home – but there wasn't a spot for his dad, Scott.
There wasn't anyone at Launceston General who could perform the surgery, but there was a doctor waiting at Royal Hobart Hospital to operate on Maginness as soon as they landed at the other end of the state.
"Two of the arteries that go into my kidney – they are attached to the kidney supply with blood – they were ripped out, so that was freely bleeding into my abdominal cavity, or that sort of area," he said. "I had to have surgery to effectively get those arteries clamped up to stop them from free bleeding, because I was losing blood internally into my body."
Maginness lost almost half his blood. He spent three nights at Royal Hobart, then he was discharged but only to stay nearby. His partner Gemma had met him and his mum in Hobart by then.
But after experiencing hallucinations in his sleep that night, Maginness went downhill fast due to an infection. He returned to hospital for a couple of nights before transferring to Melbourne, where he was taken straight to the Epworth in Richmond for a few more days.
Sam Mitchell had been in daily contact and came to visit him in the Epworth after the win over Carlton in round 20. West, Bennell and many others handled the early stages of his recovery. GM Rob McCartney flew back to Tasmania and spent time with Maginness and his family, a gesture they are all still grateful for.
"Rob McCartney actually flew back down to Hobart to be there with me for a couple days to visit me himself. And you know, he bought a book for me to read. He provided support for my family, so I cannot thank him enough for coming down," Maginness said.
"Seriously, Rob is someone that goes above and beyond. The care for his players is unmatched, and he's someone that is seriously valued internally in our football club. I'm very grateful for him, for my mum who was down there with me and my partner, Gemma. It means a lot too just knowing how much Rob cared about me and he cares about his players."
Usually the fittest player at Hawthorn, it took Maginness the rest of 2025 to regain his fitness. It was slow progress. Very slow. Six weeks of no running, then a gradual build up under the guidance of high performance manager Peter Burge.
It wasn't all smooth sailing. Maginness almost fell asleep in one of Adrian Hickmott's meetings, but not because the content was boring.
"Because I lost a lot of blood from internal bleeding, I was still really tired, probably for a month after the incident. Just low blood levels, low oxygen, haemoglobin. So I was getting really tired and I remember I actually fell asleep in a forwards meeting," he said.
"Adrian Hickmott went to give me a spray, but then he remembered that I've got low blood levels and I was trying to fight it. I could see he was about to and then he held back. We joke about that now."
Maginness never feared his career was over while lying in Royal Hobart Hospital, but the surgeon made it clear that if not for medical advancements, he would have lost the kidney and been forced to make a decision on whether he kept playing with just one.
"From my point of view, I always thought, 'Oh, I'll be right, I'll just get back from this'. But the doc said to me if this had of happened 10 years ago, the surgery I had wasn't around then and I would have lost my kidney. They would have taken it out," he said.
"If you've got one kidney, then you're left with a decision of whether you keep playing or not, because you're at risk. That's when I realised, 'Oh, this isn't great'.
"Ten years earlier I would have been left with the decision. I think Mum and my partner both said, if you had one kidney, they'd definitely not let me play."
After playing in both finals against the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide in 2024, Maginness was forced to watch on last September as the Hawks beat Greater Western Sydney and Adelaide on the road to reach a preliminary final against Geelong at the MCG. That motivated him. His dad played in the 1988 and 1989 premierships across his 131-game career in the brown and gold. Finn wants a medal of his own.
"It's a tough position to be in, because you want so much for the club to succeed and for your teammates to succeed and for the club to win, but you can't help but feel envious because you just want to be out there. That was something injured players towards the end of the year always have to battle," he said.
"But I was just so pleased to see the boys get on a roll into a prelim – first time we've been to a prelim since I've been at the club – and if anything, it put the drive back in me to want to get back into the side and play in September again.
"That's always been my goal when I've been injured, or even when I've been in the twos, I just want to be in Hawthorn's next premiership side. That's something that's always motivated me and always been the carrot dangling. Last year, watching the boys in finals, just motivated me more anything."
Hawthorn has won six consecutive games to sit equal top of the ladder at 6-1, just behind Sydney and Fremantle on percentage. Will Day is closing in on a return. AFL quality players are waiting at Box Hill for opportunities to present, just like they have been across the past two seasons.
Maginness has played 35 VFL games across the past five years and could have gone elsewhere for more opportunities by now. But growing up in a Hawthorn family, around so many icons from the 80s and 90s, he is driven to be there when it matters most, even if that means playing more VFL this year.
"I think the best way to handle it [being on the fringe] is to keep putting up good performances and take your opportunities when you get in the AFL side. My goal for my career is I just want to play in a premiership," he said.
"Whether I'm in the AFL or VFL at round five, I can still get back in the side and play in that premiership, so I always have that carrot dangling at the end of the year. I want to take my opportunity, be in the best possible form I can so I can take that opportunity and try push for that next flag and add value to the team in our pursuit of that next premiership."
If it is to happen this September, Maginness will still be wearing the kidney guard, a constant reminder of the day his career hung in the balance while he flew south from Launceston to Hobart.