Central Coasts Lawrie McKinna, Alex Tobin and all things Mariners

This article first appeared at www.netfa.com

I caught up with Central Coast Mariners Lawrie McKinna and Alex Tobin at Gloria Jeans, Belconnen Mall recently and here's what they had to say about the Mariners for next season.

Central Coast Manager Lawrie McKinna and Ex-Socceroo and Mariners Development Coach Alex Tobin talk Mariners, A-League and their plans for season three.

When you ask McKinna and Tobin about the Mariners grand final loss to Sydney FC in A-League season one, they both still groan. Even though it’s more than fifteen months ago the bodies still seem to twitch a little.

“How did we lose that game, the chances we had, we just couldn’t finish on the day. We had six great goal-scoring opportunities chances,” says McKinna.

His Mariners team had gone to Aussie Stadium home of Sydney FC in front of a sell-out grand-final crowd. Everyone knew Sydney FC would win the first A-League title. After all they had Dwight Yorke. The Mariners fans and their team stormed the bastion. Chance after chance came and went. Each one easier than the last. Surely they would score. And then it’s 1-0 to Sydney, game over.

Mckinna knows the goal problem continued all through season two. “We played well enough, we let in three goals more than season one, but scored 12 less. We got key injuries, but we couldn’t score. We lost Dean Heffernan (to Nurnberg) who scored seven goals, Noel Spencer scored six in season one, I don’t think he scored in season 2. If only we could have kept Damian Mori for the whole season.”

“The biggest problem we’ve had, in the first two years, is knowing which players you are going to put on the park. Sometimes last season we had nine players injured, so there isn’t too much you can do at training with a squad of twenty. We’ve never whinged about the size of the A-League squad as that’s the rules, but continuity is very difficult from week to week. However, it becomes very easy to pick a team, whoever is fit gets to play, and the less fit go on the bench!”

So is the winner of the A-League merely the last team standing?

“Well, if you look at Melbourne in season two they had the least injuries of any team. That’s not to say it’s purely down to that, that they won the competition, but it certainly helps,” says Ex-Socceroo and Mariners Development Coach Alex Tobin

The focus is forward.

“We’re going to be very strong in Season 3. We need to score more goals. With the guys we’ve got for next season we can score from all over the park. Sasho Petrovski has signed. He’s had his ups and downs at Sydney but he was top scorer the last two seasons. Nicky Mrdja is a new player, he’s fit (He’s missed most of the first two season due to injury) Adam Kwasnik is the best finisher in the club. I know he missed a lot of chances and the supporters gave him a bit of stick, but he’s one of the best natural finishers in the game. He’ll benefit this year with the other proven goal scorers around him. Greg Owens has signed from Adelaide, he’s a proven goal scorer. John Hutchison and Tom Pondeljak all get goals. And we’re still hopeful we’ll get Heff (Dean Heffernan) back from Nurnberg as technically he’s still our player, but it depends on what offers he gets. He could be good enough for the Socceroos, if he gets playing. The Socceroos need a left-sided player and a good-looking one, and he fits both criteria. He’d be a hit with the female fans!”

“We’re always looking at players. We won’t fill the twenty-three-man roster, I don’t think any club will. They’ll be using the money to buy a little bit more in terms of quality, or they may not spend the salary cap. It depends on the finances of each club. We’re okay at the Mariners, we’re well set-up.”

“We’ve got ten days of pre-season training then we’re off to the Hong Kong Sevens again, on 26th May. Then we’ve a game in Canberra against Belconnen United and then the pre-season cup starts.”

“We’re taking a young side to Hong Kong next week to play Celtic, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, and Urawa Reds, including a couple of boys from the local club, Central Coast Lightning. We played Celtic two years ago and beat them 2-0. Fergie (Assistant Mariners Coach and ex-Rangers player Ian Ferguson) wasn’t happy I wouldn’t let him play against Celtic!”

McKinna had a desire to be involved in football from an early age. He played part-time for Kilmarnock in Scotland, before coming to Australia twenty-one years ago said, “As a kid, I always wanted to earn 100 pound a week and play for Rangers. I was going to give my mum 95 pounds and buy a Hillman Avenger with the rest. How I was going to buy the car, I don’t now know, but that was the dream.”

“I managed to stay involved in the game for a long time, even through the dark, dark days of Northern Spirit in the National Soccer League when guys weren’t getting paid. It was pretty depressing.”

“But now people stop you in the street to talk football and in Melbourne, when the Mariners were there, we had TV crews chasing us down the street. The game has changed. The fans singing, jumping in the stadiums bring a great atmosphere in Sydney with The Cove and Melbourne. Which other codes, Union, League or AFL have that. We’ve got a great family atmosphere at The Mariners. It’s a great time to be involved in football.