Players and coaches come and go in football but McKinna believes the Mariners represent an exceptionally steady ship and hopes that will not be lost on players who are considering where to ply their trade in season five.

The club has today organised a photo shoot to celebrate this weekend’s 100th competitive game since the Mariners formation.

While other clubs have been through at least two or three coaches and seen entire playing squads alter since the inaugural A-League season, the Mariners still boast more than half of their original playing squad.

Nigel Boogaard, Andrew Clark, Andre Gumprecht, Dean Heffernan, John Hutchinson, Nik Mrdja, Paul O’Grady, Matthew Osman, Bradley Porter, Danny Vukovic and Alex Wilkinson each contributed to season one and McKinna is delighted.

He told au.fourfourtwo.com: “I think the fact that we have so many of the original squad still here just typifies the stability that we enjoy at this football club.

“I think the players here appreciate that they’re looked after properly, they’re comfortable here and they enjoy being part of this football club.

“Hopefully that’s something people will recognise and you hope it’s something they want to be part of.”

McKinna has already persuaded a healthy chunk of his squad to pen new deals for next season and beyond, most recently goalkeeper Danny Vukovic.

Andrew Clark is expected to pen a new deal later this week, ensuring the Mariners retain both a player and strength and conditioning coach.
McKinna said: “We’re hopeful that can be sorted out.”

Clark’s training sessions are one of the reasons players enjoy turning up for work at Bluetongue Stadium. McKinna said: “The spirit’s great. We had no (A-League) game last weekend so instead we organised a Mariners triathlon.

“It was teams of three and the winners were Alex Wilkinson, Andre Gumprecht and Adrian Caceres.”

Football rather than swimming, running and cycling is the order of business this weeked though and McKinna is looking forward to taking on Wellington Phoenix.

He said: “We should have beaten them when we played them over there. You know it’s going to be a hard slog against them. But we’re creating chances, scoring goals and playing good football.”