McKenna was offered a two-year deal to coach the club in 2011 and 2012, which will be the new AFL franchise’s first two seasons in the competition.
The announcement is a huge achievement for McKenna and a show of faith by GC17 in his coaching ability.
Late last year he moved from Melbourne, where he was an assistant coach at Collingwood, with his family to assume the coaching role but with no assurances he would win the AFL job from 2011.
However, after steering the club’s youngsters to a finals berth in the Victorian-based TAC Cup under-18 competition - and continuing to develop and recruit several more promising types - the Gold Coast believed it had the right man for its senior post.
McKenna, 40, has long been considered a senior coach in the making.
The one-time champion defender played 267 matches - including two premierships - with the West Coast Eagles before joining former mentor Mick Malthouse at the Lexus Centre at the end of 2003.
He spent more than four seasons as an assistant to his former coach before opting to move north in pursuit of realising his own dream of coaching AFL football.
McKenna’s appointment comes on top of more good news for the club.
Earlier this week, Gold Coast revealed another coup when it announced it had snared Geelong’s Ken Hinkley to an assistant’s role.
Hinkley, who will work alongside McKenna and the rest of the coaching panel in readying the Gold Coast for its entry to the AFL, has played a big part in the Cats’ recent premiership successes.
This year the under-18s Gold Coast team finished seventh on the TAC Cup ladder and made it through to the second week of the finals.
In 2010, the Gold Coast football club will graduate from junior ranks to the senior Victorian Football League.
The following year it will step into the AFL, becoming the League’s 17th team.
The Gold Coast is steadily building its playing list in preparation for its inaugural season.
On top of highly-publicised recruit and rugby league convert Karmichael Hunt, the new club has already signed six of the 12 17-year-olds it is eligible to recruit before next year’s draft.
The club is also on the hunt for talent from rival AFL clubs, with Gold Coast able to sign one uncontracted player from each club before entering the League in 2011.
