O'Donovan spent two seasons with Central Coast, scoring 19 goals in 45 games, before joining the Jets in the off-season.

The 32-year-old will face his former club for the first time on Saturday, when Newcastle head south for the F3 Derby to start the new season, and he is looking forward to the challenge.

"I might get a bit of stick," the Irishman told FourFourTwo.

"But it's all part of the flavour. If I'm going to get some stick then it means that I've done something right when I was playing at Gosford so it doesn't bother me in the slghtest. I'm going down there to impress - I want to win the football match for the team in blue.

"I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully there's a fairly big crowd in Gosford because it would be nice to have a little bit of spice in the F3 derby."

Ex-Jets Andrew Hoole and Ben Kennedy have also swapped clubs although the former is suspended for the weekend's clash.

"It definitely makes it interesting," O'Donovan said.

"It brings the level of intensity to a different level. It's an environment I'm looking forward to playing in and I can't wait till it kicks off. Pre-season has gone on forever so bring on the A-League."

O'Donovan was in demand at the end of last season with a number of A-League clubs interested in signing the former Sunderland forward.

He admits it was hard to leave the Mariners but the ambition of Newcaslte, and the lifestyle there, was an attractive choice.

"Lawrie sold us the dream of Newcastle," he said.

"It ticked a number of boxes for us regardling lifestyle, football and whatever else. I'm glad I made the decision. It's a lovely place to live. Of course it was a tough decision [to leave Central Coast].

"I'd been there for two years, I'd met a lot of good people there, I had a good rapport with the fans, I enjoyed my football there. But at the end day you have to make these decisions for your football, your ambition and your family.

"I had to go with which ticked more boxes and that was Newcastle to be quite honest. I had a good goals to game ratio when I was at the Mariners.

"It frustrated me at times because we weren't obviously as successful as I would have liked, and that had a big bearing on my decision at the end of the day.

"Some people will say you've come to Newcastle and they didn't have a great season last year, but they have a bigger budget this year and the bigger budget you have the better players you can bring in. That's certainly been the case so far.

"It's exciting times here, it's a good club. Everything's moving in the right direction."

Newcastle is bidding to end a long finals drought this season. The Jets, who claimed the wooden spoon in 2016/2017, have a new coach at the helm in Ernie Merrick.

O'Donovan believes the Jets have the squad to make the top six.

"We can definitely have a good season, we'll be looking at the top half of the table - there's no doubt about that," he said.