Lawrie McKinna (born 8 July 1961) is a Scottish-Australian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

player, coach, and former Mayor of Gosford City Council. In 2012, McKinna stood for election as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

for

City of Gosford The City of Gosford is a former local government area located on the Central Coast region, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The incorporation of Gosford dates back to 1886 when the Town of Gosford was proclaimed as the ''Borough of G ...

. Lawrie was successful in gaining a seat, and was elected by his fellow councillors

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

of Gosford City on 24 September. He was removed from his position as Mayor, as a result of the amalgamation of Gosford and Wyong Councils on 12 May 2016. Lawrie unsuccessfully stood as a candidate in the September 2013 Federal election for the seat of

Robertson Robertson may refer to: People * Robertson (surname) (includes a list of people with this name) * Robertson (given name) * Clan Robertson, a Scottish clan * Robertson, stage name of Belgian magician Étienne-Gaspard Robert (1763–1837) Place ...

. His campaign was backed by

John Singleton John Daniel Singleton (January 6, 1968 April 28, 2019) was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film debut writing and directing ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

to the tune of $380,000. While receiving 8.7% of the vote, Singleton and McKinna controversially decided the outcome of the seat by directing preference votes to the conservative

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

candidate Ms Lucy Wicks. Ms Wicks formally thanked Lawrie & his backer

in her maiden speech in parliament.

Early life

McKinna was born in Galston in southwest Scotland.

Playing career

Club

McKinna began his career as a striker with local junior side Darvel and made his debut for

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...

side

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

in 1982. He made 87 league appearances for

, scoring 17 times before moving to Australia in 1986 where he went on to play for several more clubs in the NSL and various state leagues.

Management career

McKinna's coaching career began in 1992 with

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

side

Blacktown City Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blackto ...

as assistant manager. In 1995 Hills United hired him as a player/manager (http://www.hillsbrumbies.com.au/). In 1997, he became assistant to David Mitchell with

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

clubs

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957 by Greek immigrant ...

, then following Mitchell to

Sydney United Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but ...

in 1998 and

Parramatta Power Parramatta Power Soccer Club were a professional association football club who were based in the Western Sydney city of Parramatta. They played in the National Soccer League from season 1999-00 until the league folded in 2004. The Power were ...

in 1999. He left

in 2002 to take over as manager of Northern Spirit. His first season as a NSL coach was extremely promising and successful as he beat many accomplished coaches, and was awarded with the NSL coach of the year award after taking the Northern Spirit to their first finals campaign for three years.

Central Coast Mariners

In 2005, he was named as manager of the new

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

club the

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The ...

, earning the inaugural

coach of the year award after leading the Mariners to the grand final and winning the preseason cup. In May 2006 he signed a new five-year contract with the Mariners. McKinna was popular in the community for his insistence that all the players at the club engaged in community activities. This became a hallmark of his tenure at the fledgling club. In the 2006/2007 season, McKinna gave an interview during which his team were struggling for on field success. Notably saying how it was frustrating for him when the press report losses in matches but don't mention the long-term injury's to the sides key players like

Nik Mrdja Nikola "Nik" Mrdja (born 30 November 1978) is an Australian former soccer player, who played as a striker. Mrdja had a career spanning several National Soccer League (NSL) and A-League clubs from 1998 to 2011, as well as a brief spell in Swede ...

, Andre Gumprecht and

Noel Spencer Noel Spencer (born 26 July 1977 in Wollongong, Australia) is a former Australian football (soccer) player who coaches Dapto Dandaloo Fury in the Illawarra Premier League. Club career NSL Noel played for his hometown of Wollongong from 19 ...

. In the interview he also talked about his footballing coaching licenses and mentions that he would be preparing to take his '"Asian 'B' license" course soon. On 9 February 2010, it was announced that McKinna will take over as the Football and Commercial Operations Manager for the Mariners from the 2010/2011 season, with

Graham Arnold Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963) is an Australian soccer manager and former player. Arnold was appointed to work as an assistant coach of the Australian national soccer team in 2000. After head coach Frank Farina was sacked in 2005, Ar ...

replacing him as head coach.

Chengdu Blades

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

club

Chengdu Blades Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. () was a Chinese professional football club based in Chengdu, China who last played in the 26,000 seater Shuangliu Sports Center in the China League One division. The club was founded on 26 February 1996 and was formerly ...

have shown interest in McKinna taking over the reins as manager of the first team on 18 March 2011. A day later, he was appointed as the head coach of Chengdu Blades a club known to have the lowest operating budget in the CSL. On 15 August, it was confirmed by McKinna via his

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account, that he had resigned from his position as manager at the Blades. He cited off-field, back room issues as a major reason for his decision, which contributed to the Blades poor 2011 CSL season, in which at the time of McKinna's departure had seen them only win only twice, conceding 30+ goals, whilst only scoring 13, and the club at the bottom of the ladder after just 20 matches.

Chongqing Lifan

On 2 December 2011 it was announced that McKinna had signed a one-year contract with

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

side

Chongqing Lifan Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic () is a defunct Chinese football club. The team was based in Chongqing. The club was founded in 1995 as Wuhan Qianwei before making their debut in the newly developed fully professional Chinese football league syst ...

. On 15 April 2012 he announced he was leaving the club after a disagreement with the board.

Central Coast Mariners

On 4 May 2012 it was announced that Lawrie would become the new Director of Football for the Central Coast Mariners. A position that he took on again temporarily for two months in 2014.

Newcastle Jets

In June 2016, McKinna was appointed chief executive of the Newcastle Jets.

After football

McKinna was elected a councillor of

Gosford City Council The City of Gosford is a former local government area located on the Central Coast region, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The incorporation of Gosford dates back to 1886 when the Town of Gosford was proclaimed as the ''Borough of G ...

in September 2012 and nominated as Mayor at the first council meeting. In the

2013 Australian election The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on 7 September 2013. The centre-right Coalition (Australia), Liberal/National Coalition Opposition (Australia), opposition led by Opposition ...

, McKinna ran as a conservative independent for the seat of

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Club

APIA Leichhardt: * NSL Cup: 1988

Manager

Club

: * A-League Championship: **''Finalists:''

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

* A-League Premiership: 2007–08 * A-League Challenge Cup:

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

**''Finalists:''

2006 CCF: CCM v AF
/ref>

Individual

* NSL Coach of the Year: 2002–03 *

Coach of the Year: 2005-2006

References

External links

Central Coast Mariners profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKinna, Lawrie Central Coast (New South Wales) 1961 births Living people Footballers from Kilmarnock Scottish footballers Australian soccer players APIA Leichhardt FC players Blacktown City FC players Kilmarnock F.C. players Wollongong Wolves FC players Australian expatriate soccer players Australian expatriate soccer coaches Scottish expatriate footballers Scottish expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer players in Australia Scottish Football League players National Soccer League (Australia) players Scottish football managers Australian soccer coaches A-League Men managers Expatriate football managers in China Darvel F.C. players Central Coast Mariners FC non-playing staff Association football forwards Shire Presidents and Mayors of Gosford Independent politicians in Australia Scottish emigrants to Australia