The Mariners dreams of Asian Champions League glory ended with a 3-2 defeat against Pohang Steelers on Tuesday and thoughts will now turn to A-League preparations.

McKinna and his players arrive back in Australia today (Thursday)  with several members of the squad likely to be saying goodbye in the coming weeks.

The quest for new faces now begins and McKinna will look both home and away.

While overseas recruits have been thin on the ground at the Gosford-based outfit, McKinna has hit out at those who accuse the Mariners of an unwillingness to look beyond Australian shores for talent.

"I keep being asked this question about (lack of) foreign players at the club," he told au.fourfourtwo.com. "Let me make this clear, we want to have the best quality squad we can have.

"What I won't do is bring in players from overseas who are not better players than those we've already got. The other side of the coin is cost that comes with quality. We have to be able to afford the overseas player we want or one that is available.

"That's how it is."

McKinna says the recruitment process will be a thorough one and agents simply flashing a highlights package of a so-called world-beater will get pretty short thrift.

"We won't be signing people just on the basis of a DVD," said McKinna.

Matt Simon, Danny Vukovic and Dean Heffernan are thought to be three of the current squad causing overseas interest although only Simon has attracted an offer.