To see Aloisi in action at training...

Despite stepping off a 24 hour flight just the day before, Aloisi looked the business as he proved his worth in front of goal in a high-tempo five v five match at Mariners’ training ground at The Entrance.

Now Aloisi has set his sights on winning the league - and taking his new side into Asia before tackling a second World Cup campaign.

“It’s good to meet everyone and I can’t wait to play with them now,” he said after training. “We seemed to get on well at training.

“The boys work hard and you can tell why they’re top of the table. Hopefully I can score a few goals and we win the league and qualify for the Asian Champions League.

"If I can keep fit and perform well for the Mariners in the years before the World Cup, hopefully I’ll be able to play in another."

New boss Lawrie McKinna was impressed with what he saw but was keen to see the effect the training session would have on Aloisi’s body after three months without a game.

“He looked all right,” he said. “He was up for the training this morning, he trained well, his touch was good and in the 24 hours or less that he’s been here, he shaped up pretty well.

“It’ll be interesting to see how he pulls up tomorrow morning.”

The club are already feeling the impact of the star signing, brought in as a replacement for Matt Osman who has been ruled out for the season through injury.

The normally quiet training session was mobbed by press and a non-stop stream of locals eager for a glimpse of the Socceroo legend.

“We were at Terrigal yesterday and people were just walking past and saying: That’s John Aloisi!” added McKinna. “He’s such a big name to come to our club.

“We’ve worked hard with the team we’ve got and the last couple of weeks we’ve struggled a bit because of injuries but we still hung in there at the top of the league. John is just going to add to that.

“Young players like Matty Simon are going to learn so much off John. John Aloisi and Sasho Petrovski upfront is a threatening strike force. It gives us that depth upfront that we haven’t had the last few weeks.”

Mariners skipper Alex Wilkinson is facing up to the prospect of ordering around one the of nation’s icons when he recovers from his current knee injury.

“I haven’t bossed him around yet but I’m sure he’ll be fine with it,” said Wilkinson. “If something needs to be said, it needs to be said, but I’m sure he’ll be bossing the rest of us around as well.

“Once the 90 minutes are over, we’re all back to good mates.”

Wilkinson admitted he was shocked as anyone to find out the club had signed Aloisi. He was at home nursing his crocked knee while the rest of the squad were in New Zealand for the weekend’s game against Phoenix when the news broke.

“It’s unbelievable to have John in the side,” he admitted. “I just got a message off the coaching staff that he’d signed and I was obviously rapt.

“No-one was expecting it but to have a player like him come home is just great and it’s good for us and good for the league.

“I’d heard about Sydney chasing him and Wellington and he’d knocked them both back so it’s a big feather in our cap. It’s just great to have someone like that.”

The training session was the first time rookie Socceroo Dean Heffernan had joined Aloisi on a pitch and he was blown away by the thrill of seeing him and Socceroo veteran Tony Vidmar in Central Coast colours.

“I’m excited – who wouldn’t be, having Johnny in the team?” he said. “He was one of my favourite players in the World Cup.

“Just watching him run on, and he’s always got a smile on his face and just his enthusiasm. He’s just got such a great attitude – having him and Viddy around is massive for players like myself.

“Having him and Viddy here now, it’s huge. We want to do just half the things they’ve done.”

He added: “I’d never played alongside John until I was up against him in the training match today.

"I don’t remember if he got past me – but he probably did. I think he got past everyone once…”

Heffernan said he welcomed the increased spotlight Aloisi's arrival would bring.

"It’s good for the club," he said. "People don’t really look at us too much or worry about us too much on TV.

"We’re top of the table, we’ve got the best goal difference so it doesn’t really bother us whether you look at us or not because we keep winning.

"It’s been good today with Johnny coming in and plenty of media and plenty of people watching – that’s great for everyone. It gets more out of you in training."

But he added: "There’s no chance of it destabilising the team.

"We all came from different areas and we all go training together every day and when we go out, we tend to hang out with each other outside of football as well.

"He’ll be welcomed with open arms."

To see Aloisi in action at training...