The 19-year-old has been a revelation since joining the Demons last year, having grown up on a 300-acre farm just a few hundred metres out of Mirrool in the Riverina, about 258 kilometres north-west of Canberra.
While the Demons have started their NEAFL campaign with two losses, Maguire says the club is on the right track.
"It was heartbreaking. We were probably a bit lucky in some aspects, they sort of kept us in it all day," Maguire said.
"We've just got take a lot of positives from the game on the weekend and really build on what we put up, not be too disheartened about the loss and just move on from that.
"If we bring that sort of effort every week, we're going to win games. The main focus will just be being really intense, not going through the motions. If we can bring that intensity each week we'll have a pretty good season.
"In the last quarter we were definitely a chance and just couldn't get the job done which was disappointing, but our effort compared to last week was a lot better and everyone was more upbeat after the game.
"Last week we probably went into the game just thinking things were going to happen, whereas this week we knew we had to be harder around the contest and play with a lot more intensity this week and we definitely did that."
The visitors couldn't put the Demons away thanks to their own inaccuracy, kicking 25 behinds and registering two less goals than Canberra, but they still managed to sneak back up the Hume Highway with a win.
Demons forward Nathan Richards played a lone hand in the ruck for most fo the contest after first choice ruckman Cameron Milne copped a concussion in the opening term, while Lucas Meline played above his size to deputise for Richards.
But it did little to stop the Students as Jake Derickx put the exclamation mark on the win with four goals, while former Sydney Swan Xavier Richards added one of his own.
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Canberra goals: M Maguire 3, A Bruce 2, J Turner 2, B Fulford 2, L Meline, A Smout, J Nunn, N Richards
Sydney University goals: J Derickx 4, T Young, W Sierakowski, X Richards, A Lucy, J Hiscox, S Fong, M Wilson
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Caden Helmers is a sports reporter for The Canberra Times
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