The game is in his blood. When he was a kid growing up in Scotland, he saw just how seriously the game is taken.

As a Rangers fan, he experienced firsthand one of the world’s greatest sporting rivalries.

“Where I grew up, football was life and death,” McKinna says, while recalling the conflict between Rangers and Celtic fans.

“That does fuel your desire to win.”

It’s the will to win that McKinna aims to reinforce and strengthen in his time as Newcastle Jets chief executive.

Last season, Central Coast Mariners owner Mike Charlesworth made the controversial comment that entertaining was more important than results.

McKinna begs to differ.

“It’s all about winning,” he says.

“It’s a professional sport. If we win more games, we’ll get more people to the games.”

While it’s the job of new coach Mark Jones to instil a winning mentality in the team, McKinna wants the whole club to have a winning culture.

He attributes this attitude as key to his own achievements in life.

“That’s why, I suppose, I went from a coach to a general manager [at the Mariners], to a coach in China, to becoming the mayor [of Gosford] and coming to the Jets.”

McKinna recently released his book, titled Political Football - Lawrie McKinna’s Dangerous Truth, which was written with author Adrian Deans.

Football and politics, McKinna says, have a lot in common.

“You’re dealing with people who are nice to your face and they’re trying to shaft you in behind,” he says.

“I’ve been told I was a bit unusual as a politician because I was upfront and straight with people.

“I didn’t mind taking the blame for making decisions.”

This extended to the recent crisis at the Jets, with the sacking of Scott Miller as coach.

“When we made the announcement about Scott Miller, I knew we’d get a backlash,” McKinna says.

As chief executive, McKinna says he has to take responsibility for the decision.

“That’s my job,” he says.

With the subsequent appointment of Jones as coach, some fans naturally wondered whether some kind of plot had occurred to oust Miller.

The fact McKinna worked with Jones during his time in China only served to bolster the conspiracy theory.

McKinna is adamant there was no plot.

“It was not the club that pushed for this,” he says.

“A few people were saying [Jets owner] Ledman wanted rid of Scott, which was not the case.”

If the new owners had wanted a new coach, they would have made the decision soon after they took over.

When the takeover happened, discussions understandably occurred about whether a new coach should be appointed, given the team finished only eighth last season.

McKinna says he convinced Ledman chairman Martin Lee that stability was needed.

“It wasn’t a hard sell,” he says.

Under Miller, the Jets had improved on the previous season when they finished last under coach Phil Stubbins.

But things took a turn when Miller and assistant Luciano Trani had a falling out that could not be resolved.

This led the owners to axe the coach. Trani followed him out the door the next day, as fans looked for somewhere to direct their anger.

About 40 fans contacted the club, saying they wanted to cancel their membership over the sacking of Miller.

“I phoned them all personally and explained the situation,” McKinna says.

“Apart from one member, we got them all back onside.”

McKinna has since moved on and is looking forward to the new season, which begins for the Jets on Sunday in a home match against defending champions Adelaide.

After being in politics for four years, McKinna says he’s loving being back in football.

“I’ve got a smile on my face every day, even on the bad days,” he says.

Things could have been different. McKinna could have ended up as chief executive of the Mariners.

Martin Lee had been keen to buy the Mariners, but Mike Charlesworth did not want to sell.

In June, shortly before McKinna was appointed as Jets chief executive, the Herald ran an online poll that asked: “Would Lawrie McKinna be a good fit for the Jets?”.

Of those who voted, 80 per cent answered yes.

“I was confident it would be good. I always had a great reception when I came to Newcastle to watch games with my wife Christine,” McKinna says.

“I knew I had to come here and prove myself and be accepted, but I must admit it’s been great.”

McKinna says one of his jobs is to mend community bridges that were broken under the previous regime.

“I don’t think the club’s been engaged enough over the last six years,” he says.

“We need to be more accessible and part of the community.

“That doesn’t mean we’ll be at the opening of an envelope – it means we have to be at the right things, so the people of Newcastle feel it’s their team.”

Nick Hagistefanis knows McKinna from his time at the Mariners.

“I met him at a Woy Woy soccer presentation night,” says Hagistefanis, co-owner of Fruit For All at Berkeley Vale on the Central Coast.

McKinna asked if he’d be interested in being a sponsor of the Mariners.

Hagistefanis agreed and his fruit shop remains a sponsor of the club to this day.

“It was a good thing for us,” Hagistefanis says.

“He got our name out there. He’d be talking at a lot of functions and plugging our business.”

McKinna is known as a networker.

“He gets himself out there to know a lot of people and businesses,” says Hagistefanis, who agreed to be on McKinna’s political ticket when he ran for mayor.

Hagistefanis, an ardent Mariners fan, doesn’t begrudge him taking the top job at the Jets.

“This job came up at Newcastle and he had to take it. Good on him,” he says.

“From a supporter and business point-of-view, I think he’s a loss for us.

“He should be running the show at Central Coast – that’s my opinion.”

As for McKinna’s football credentials, Liverpool legend Craig Johnston says he’s “a big fan of Lawrie”.

“He’s clearly a football man through and through,” says Johnston, who grew up at Speers Point.

“He comes from a Scottish mould that I know very well.”

Johnston likes the way McKinna operates.

“He’s a character and we need more characters in the game,” he says.

McKinna’s book details his life in football, from playing as a professional with Kilmarnock in Scotland to moving to Australia with Christine.

In Australia, he played in the old National Soccer League (NSL) and state league, before turning his attention to coaching.

In the dying days of the NSL, he coached Northern Spirit.

It was tough to make a living out of the game in those days.

Sometimes wages weren’t paid.

“Things were so bad that some of the boys resorted to thieving bread from the local supermarket,” McKinna says in his book.

“There were cars repossessed and marriages under stress.

“Sometimes I’d turn up to training and the team were all so starved and wretched, I’d say: ‘Bugger this, we’re back to mine for a barbie. Youse bring the bread’.”

McKinna has never been short of a sense of humour.

“I like to put a smile on people’s faces,” he says.

Despite rumours in 2004 of a new national competition, “the idea of making my living from football was about as realistic as winning the lottery”, he wrote.

The dream, though, was about to become reality.

The Central Coast Mariners were born and McKinna became their first coach.

In five years at the helm, he won the Premier’s Plate (top of the league) and reached two grand finals (losing one to the Jets). He was the inaugural A-League coach of the year.

It’s been well documented that the Mariners were run on the smell of an oily rag. McKinna’s nickname for the club was the “Rag-arse Rovers”.

McKinna got on with the job and built a reputation for being a hard-working, down-to-earth bloke.

The same was said of his time at the head of Gosford City Council.

“When I was mayor, I respected everybody,” he said.

“It didn’t matter if you were the prime minister or the cleaner. I treated everybody the same way. 

“When I started that job, everybody was ‘Mr Mayor this and Mr Mayor that’.

“I could not handle that because I’m just Lawrie.”

It’s this type of no-nonsense outlook, along with the will to win and the desire to build close ties with the community, that McKinna brings to Newcastle.

He, and the fans, will be hoping these values lead the club to a new era of stability and success.