Hearts' Bobby Burns in Australia: Coronavirus, ex-Bayern Munich players, heat, flights and time zones

Coronavirus, 42-degree heat, five-hour flights, different time zones and marking ex-Bayern Munich players. Bobby Burns’ spell in Australia has been frenetic. The young Hearts defender is enjoying the time of his life on loan at Newcastle Jets having fully embraced the culture Down Under. Eventually.

“People here are so chilled. There is no sectarianism,” the Northern Irishman tells the Evening News. “One of my Jets team-mates lives in my street and I was like: ‘So, is this a Catholic or Protestant area?’ He looked at me like I had three heads. In Northern Ireland, you’re one or the other.”

In Australia, you are just a footballer. In Burns’ case, a rapidly blossoming one. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, as you might have gathered. Yet on a pitch he is the ultimate competitor. Comfortable at left-back or midfield, the 20-year-old is currently thriving at wing-back under Jets coach Carl Robinson.

He recently welcomed Kenny Miller to New South Wales as Robinson’s assistant, while Joe Ledley became his team-mate just last month. “Kenny’s coaching is great and he’s still got it as a player,” says Burns. “When he joins in with us in training, he’s smashing them into the top corner. The chief executive is from Glasgow, Lawrie McKinna. He is a top guy and a huge Rangers fan. We give him some stick, asking him if he wanted Kenny’s autograph when he arrived.

“They really look after me. I was given a car. Lawrie has put me in touch with other Irish families and any time there’s a promotional event involving a dinner he puts me down for it so I don’t need to cook for myself. Newcastle is fantastic, although it’s quieter than Sydney which can be a bit boring when you’re 20 and single. The beaches are incredible.

“The passion for football in Scotland is fantastic and I miss it. It’s not like that here, but the pitches are better. Australian sports science is among the best in the world. It’s interesting seeing how they do things differently, like eating five hours before a game instead of three.

“There’s a lot of emphasis on hydration with the heat but the lifestyle is brilliant. My dad was over for two weeks and we got two wins while he was here.”

Newcastle are unbeaten in six matches and Burns contributed two assists in the last two. Other challenges have arisen off the field. “The Coronavirus isn’t a huge problem over here because of the temperatures. Because everybody is panicking in Europe, that is having an affect,” he says.

“I went to get my dinner the other night and there was no chicken, mince or vegetables. We only have something like 20 people in the whole state who have Coronavirus. Because Europe are cancelling games, it looks bad that we are still playing. So now we will play behind closed doors. There are only six games left so they might try to cram them in.

“I don’t want the league to be suspended and then I’m sitting in the flat myself with no games. I’ve been following Hearts on the Edinburgh Evening News and BBC but it’s hard with the time difference.”

Burns will be thankful he did not join Jets’ A-League rivals Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand. The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced on Sunday that anyone entering the country must stay in a two-week quarantine to slow the spread of Coronavirus. The Phoenix squad hastily arranged flights to Sydney today and will stay in Australia for the next eight weeks – two in isolation before playing every game away until the season ends in late April.

“The travel is crazy anyway,” says Burns. “You think you have it bad going up to Aberdeen. We’ve got a three-hour drive to Sydney airport, a five-and-a-half-hour flight to Perth, land the night before the game to a three-hour time difference, then get up the next day and play in 35-degree heat.

“I could have gone on loan to a lower-league team in Scotland or England but I wouldn’t have played against so many good international players. I’ve been directly up against [Andrew] Nabbout one week and [Josh] Risdon the next. They both played for Australia in the last World Cup. Then it was Craig Noone, who played for Brighton and Cardiff, and Markel Susaeta, a Spanish winger who was with Athletic Bilbao in La Liga. Against Melbourne Victory, I was marking Ola Toivonen, a Swedish internationalist. Then we played Sydney and I was up against a guy who played with Bayern Munich [Alex Baumjohann].

“It’s been a really good learning curve for me in terms of improving composure on the ball. That was something Hearts tried to get me to work on. We have played 4-4-2 here, 4-3-3 and now it’s 3-5-2. I’ve started to play wing-back, which is a tough shift. The fitness levels have to go up again as we’ve played in 42 degrees.”

Anyone questioning the standard of football in Australia would benefit from a chat with those who play there. "Joe Ledley joined us a few weeks ago and he had been training with a team in League Two,” explains Burns. “He said the standard out here is a lot higher than he thought.

"The level of fitness here is crazy but the style is different. In Scotland, I'd been used to getting it and putting it in the channel, more long balls and physicality. It took me five or six weeks to get to the fitness levels here, and I was one of the fitter ones back home.”