To see the latest training session...

The Bluetongue boys would love to be the first team to dish out defeat to the A-League new boys and McKinna says his team head north with no fear and a burning desire to prove a point.  

McKinna put his players through their paces at Knox School on Thursday afternoon with trialist Michael McGlinchey and new signing Nick Travis among the participants.  

The boss is happy with the pre-season campaign so far, the Mariners having been back in the saddle for a couple of weeks following their Asian Champions League adventure.  

And while Gold Coast may be the new kids on the block, McKinna senses his side - one of the A-League originals - are keen to reassert themselves in the competition and silence a few doubters.  

Speaking exclusively to au.fourfourtwo.com, he said: "Hopefully the (Gold Coast) boys up there recover quickly and it turns out to be just the flu (only Tahj Minniecon was initially confirmed with swine flu).

"This swine flu seems to be popping up everywhere. We'll go up there and hopefully do our best to stay swine flu-free."  

McKinna says his team may have drawn a line under last season's disappointments but that doesn't mean to say that the pain has been forgotten. He senses plenty of fire in the belly.  

"We've got a bit to prove because we finished last season poorly. We have to re-establish ourselves. The boys feel they have a bit to prove to get back where we feel we should be, back up the top.  

"We've worked on shape and focused on not get hammered by silly goals, which we did last year," he said.

As for their hosts, McKinna joked that life for the press would be pretty 'boring' if everyone was like him and that Miron Bleiberg prevented journalists from having to hunt too far for a story.

"Miron's Miron," he said. "He's been around the game for a lot of years and done a good job. He's very colourful and good for the game. If everyone was as boring as me, it'd be hard (for the press).

"It's always good to be the first to do something. We're going up there thinking we can win. Why not? They might have a team of so-called superstars but we've as good a team of boys as we've had here for four or five years.

"We don't fear anyone. If we get things right on our side of things, we'll win games."

He added: "Gold Coast have had a good pre-season and a great result against Fulham. But we're happy with where we are at."

To see the latest training session...