It’s the main reason behind the club’s current Jets Tour which departed Taree on Monday afternoon and arrived in Port Macquarie on Tuesday morning.

McKinna wants the club to become more involved with the community – starting from the Hunter Region and including the majority of the Northern NSW catchment.

The Jets chief executive, coach Ernie Merrick and players Nikolai Topor-Stanley and new signing Roy O’Donovan had a candid conversation with a room of about 70 people at the Westport Club.

Following the breakfast, McKinna said he believed visits to regional areas such as Taree and Port Macquarie should become a regular part of their calendar.

“It’s not about doing anything special, it’s about doing what’s right for the game,” he said.

“Yesterday we put on a clinic at Taree and the response was amazing just to see so many kids and parents there for so long before it and how they engaged with the players.”

McKinna said the club was encouraged by some of the feedback they had received from the Taree visit.

“You hear from some of the fathers this morning about how their kids are now Jets fans and that’s what it’s about,” he said.

“Coming up here at seven o’clock in the morning looking out here in Port Macquarie and to have 70 or 80 people here wanting to listen about football and engaging with us is fantastic.”

The club believe they need to be more accessible to the community and McKinna felt they were on the right track.

“I think a lot of the time people think you can’t get to A-League coaches and players and CEO’s but when you do these kind of trips, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

“I came from a little village in Scotland where we played and supported football; it’s just the same as these guys here.

“It’s nice and refreshing to get back to the grassroots and remember where you come from.”

McKinna took over his current role with the club 12 months ago and his first challenge was to engage with the community.

“I just never thought coming in from the outside that the past few years the club never engaged inside or outside Newcastle and that included Northern NSW,” he said.

“That was our goal and then it got hampered because Scott Miller left and then Mark Jones came in and Mark was onside with the community and wanted to do what he could.

“But it all takes time. It’s like a slow-moving ship like the Titanic, it takes time to get momentum.”

The chief executive said it was important to make the Mid North Coast area feel like they were “genuinely part of the club.”

“I know they can’t get down to Newcastle too many times during the year, but they’re going to be able to get to some games,” he said.

“Now we’re getting momentum because we came to Nabiac last year and we’ve come up here this year and we’ll come back.”