FINN Maginness was off the grid in the Sahara Desert when the deal was sealed. He just didn't know his move from Hawthorn to the Western Bulldogs had actually happened until he got phone reception days later in a tiny Moroccan village.

Once the Bulldogs committed to recruiting the 25-year-old, the move was always going to happen; it was just a matter of when. On the same day the paperwork was completed for Zak Butters' free agency move from Port Adelaide, the five-club trade that included Maginness and Hudson O'Keeffe was also completed. 

After playing 64 games across seven seasons at Hawthorn, Maginness was on the move for more opportunity. But it wasn't until he sat down inside a café in Merzouga, near the Algerian border, that the belated news finally reached him and his girlfriend. It was done. Cue the deluge of messages.  

"Before I got to the desert, I messaged [Bulldogs list manager] Michael Regan and I told him: 'I'm going into the desert for a few days. I won't have any reception. If the trade goes through, just make sure the boys know that I'm not ignoring their messages'," Maginness told AFL.com.au at Mission Whitten Oval on Thursday.  

"So I think he put it out there to all the boys that I'm off the grid and I won't be replying for ages. I was a bit nervous because I didn't have any reception, so I thought, 'oh, has it happened?' People might be messaging me, maybe I'm not getting back to them, you know, but it all worked out alright in the end.

"When I got reception at some random cafe sort on the way back from the Sahara I could see that it all went through. Had a lot of missed calls, a lot of messages, so I was lucky, and I could reply to the messages pretty quick and it was just a lot of it was relief, but also excitement."

Maginness had a year to run on his contract at the Hawks and had previously turned down interest from Essendon in 2024 to continue playing for the club his father Scott won two premierships for, and where his grandfather Norm played in the 1950s. 

Playing for Hawthorn meant even more to him than most, but after another year stuck on the fringes, playing predominantly at Box Hill, Maginness knew he needed to make a move now before it was too late. 

It was out at Box Hill City Oval against Footscray in June where Luke Beveridge was convinced Maginness could add another element to his engine room after watching the midfielder lay 10 tackles and finish with 27 touches. The Western Bulldogs' coach drove the recruitment, detailing the reasons why he wanted him at a meeting with Maginness and his manager Paul Connors inside the CDG Sports office in Malvern. 

"Bevo made contact with me and I met with him and he said he was keen for me to come across. Since then I started thinking about it a bit more seriously and started watching the Dogs a bit more for the rest of the season," Maginness said.

"I just realised as the year went on that a fresh start, a new club was an exciting opportunity. I think once the season finished, I realised that it was 100 per cent what I wanted to do, especially after a flag with Box Hill it felt like a good time to maybe seek a fresh opportunity.

"Bevo was really keen for me to come across and he thinks that my best footy will be getting a game at the Doggies. He likes my ability to run and thinks that I'm tough and competitive and that's the sort of players he wants to go after. So just having interest from the head coach was great for me to hear. I think after meeting with him I was pretty sold. It probably came at the perfect time for me when I was wanting a fresh start, so I'm very grateful to him."

Maginness played only six senior games in 2026 after featuring in at least 13 in each of the past four seasons. He played both finals in 2024, but didn't run out in the past two September campaigns. Leaving Hawthorn was a decision he made with his head, not his heart. It was easy on paper, with a three-year offer from the Dogs, but these decisions are seldom easy to execute. 

"I think it definitely was more challenging because I've always grown up being a Hawthorn fan and wanting to play for Hawthorn," Maginness said. "But I thought last year I got to the stage where I realised that a fresh start would be good for me and a club like the Western Bulldogs seemed like a great club to be at with great leaders, strong history here in the west of Melbourne, great supporter base. So I got over that [family pull to Hawthorn] and it just turned into excitement."

The Western Bulldogs' midfield is now built around the big three – Marcus Bontempelli, Ed Richards and Butters – but the retirements of Tom Liberatore and Adam Treloar have impacted the depth. Getting games won't be any easier than it was at Hawthorn. But Maginness believes his ability to tag, play on a wing or across half-forward will help him play more senior football. Beveridge has been reluctant to play a tagger in the past, but now has that option with Maginness. 

"Honestly whatever role I play, I really don't mind; I just I want to be playing AFL footy," he said. "I want to be playing, putting my best foot forward, so whether it's tagging, on the wing, half-forward, I'm a really competitive person, so whenever I'm given a task I set my mind to it and get very competitive. Having the flexibility to play a lot of positions will help fit in at the Dogs."

This time last year Maginness was in the early stages of recovering from the serious kidney injury that ended his 2025 season in July and required him to spend more than a week in a Hobart hospital. He fully recovered by late in the pre-season and did enough to be picked for Opening Round, but struggled to overcome the mental challenge of the traumatic injury early in the season.

"I think it probably took me a little longer than I first thought it would. It was six months without contact, so the injury happened in July and I didn't have full contact until sort of the end of Jan, early February," he said. 

"There's a difference between getting back to contact training and then getting back to wanting contact. And it probably took me a couple extra months to get back to that second phase. But since then I'm absolutely fine. That's probably the worst injury I've had and one of the only ones I've had, so I think I've been pretty lucky actually."

Maginness was two years above Sam Darcy at Scotch College and played with Lachie Bramble at the Hawks, but other than that he doesn't know many players or coaches personally just yet. One new teammate he has enjoyed some battles with is Butters, who he clamped at University of Tasmania Stadium on the day he lacerated his kidney. 

"I haven't had much to do with him at all. It's funny, he was always very lippy on the field and whenever I played on him, he always had a few words for me. But when the trade went through, he sent me a message saying, 'I'm glad we're both playing on the same team now'. So am I. He was always tough to play on, so I'm glad we're on the same team and I'm really excited to get to know him. I think obviously he's a superstar on the field, but by all reports he's a great bloke off it and he's someone that the group really galvanises around."

Maginness now has the fresh start he wanted when he landed in Morocco. He got the chance to say goodbye to his Hawthorn teammates at Conor Nash's wedding in Ireland last month. And unlike last off-season – and most of the pre-season – he is fully fit and ready to get to work.