The heartbreak story from St Mary’s stunning GFNL success will link up with a former teammate at Bellarine club Barwon Heads.
Big man Sam Christensen, who featured in the Saints’ first semi and preliminary final wins, before making way for Nick Connors for the grand final, has signed with the Seagulls, where former teammate Damian McMahon has been elevated to co-coach for 2026.
Christensen put the disappointment behind him to produce a best-on-ground performance as St Mary’s also came from the elimination final to win the reserve grade premiership.
However, McMahon, who has shied away from actively pursuing players from his former club, says the former Geelong Falcon was looking for a change.
“With my love for the club, I don’t want to raid them or anything like that,” he said.
“But when it was at the point that if he was going to leave, that we wanted to be it to be in a Barwon Heads jumper.
“We left him to his own accord over the last couple of weeks to run through what he needed to do from his due diligence point of view and what way he wanted to take his footy.
“We’re lucky that he’s ended up in a Barwon Heads jumper, and with a real point to prove next year to come out and make a big stamp on the comp.”
McMahon has described Christensen as the “last piece” of the Seagulls’ recruiting puzzle.
He is slated to fill a key defensive role, but will also provide support to star ruck Luke Davis.
“He loves playing in the ruck, and had a really good year in 2023 at St Mary’s, finishing top five in the best-and-fairest that year as a ruckman,” McMahon said
“So it gives ‘Sticks’ (Davis) a bit of relief, too, knowing that he’s not going to play 100 per cent game time and get crashed and bashed, which will be a good.
“With ‘Chrisso’ enjoying that element of going into the ruck, whether that’s seven or eight minutes a quarter, or whatever it is, we know we’ve got that.
“And he absolutely dominated that reserves grand final playing forward.
“So, if we’re in strife and we need something different, he’ll no doubt end up playing a bit of forward, too, at some points through the year”
Barwon Heads has also added former St Joseph’s and St Mary’s junior Charley Donohue, who has won premierships with Thomson and Nirranda (Warrnambool and District) in the past two seasons and Harry Prout from Eastern league club Whitehorse.
The Seagulls are also excited by the arrival of former Footscray VFL player Mitch Jensen.
The step-brother of new Essendon president and Barwon Heads local Andrew Welsh, he is coming off 61 goals in 13 games for North Central club Wedderburn, including two hauls of ten.
“Having to travel to Wedderburn last year, we hinted at him that it’d be great not just to come and play footy at Barwon Heads, but sort of get amongst the community as well because it’s just a great place to, yeah, to be involved with,” McMahon said.
“He’s already had a couple of beers with us and settled in pretty well.
“He’s an absolute quality acquisition on the field; there’s no doubting how much of an impact he’ll have.
“A bloke who just knows how to kick goals and be a real target and presence is something that we probably lacked last year.”
The only confirmed departure is club great Mitch Herbison, who has retired.
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