Despite concluding their fourth regular season with three straight defeats against each of their Finals Series rivals, the Mariners are now relishing an opportunity to start afresh and make a play for the most celebrated prize in Australian football.
 
Andrew Clark and Matthew Osman return from suspension and injury respectively to boost the Mariners' chances against an in-form Roar side, although Dean Heffernan will sit out Friday's first leg through suspension before becoming available the following week.
 
 Speaking after training today, McKinna said: "We're looking forward to it, it's a new competition for us and a new phase of our season and it's a big week for us.
 
"It's totally different now, it doesn't matter what our form has been like - going into this first game we need to get a result at home and Friday's result will determine how we play when we go to Queensland.
 
"Queensland are probably one of the form teams, they've had a great run, Van Dijk is scoring goals for them, they're scoring goals from midfield, we just need to shut that down and concentrate on what we do well.
 
."The Roar will be tough, they've got a settled team and they've had a very settled squad.
 
"They've got a lot of youth up there and players that play with no fear and they come at you in droves, they've got a lot of pace - we just need to match that and concentrate on keeping the ball.
 
"We just need to improve our concentration, when you're playing against top teams like Queensland, you can't let your guard down for a minute and if we're switched on for ninety minutes, we'll get a positive result."

Skipper Alex Wilkinson added: "We've been in two grand finals so far and lost both of them 1-0.

"If we were to make the grand final again this year, it would be heartbreaking to lose again so hopefully it will be third time lucky for us."

Striker Matty Simon said: "It would mean everything to win. I was involved last year and we lost and some boys have been there from the start and lost both grand finals they've been in.

"This is the third finals series out of four for the Mariners and the boys are hungry to go one step further."