Blues centre-half Cameron Burgess has been speaking about settling into the Australia squad having made his debut in September last year and also Town’s Championship promotion push.
Burgess is currently away with the Socceroos for their World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon at the CommBank Stadium in Western Sydney on Thursday (KO 9am UK time) and at the GIO Stadium in Canberra next Tuesday with the Lebanese having ceded home advantage in the second match due to the ongoing political situation in the Middle East.
The 28-year-old, who has been training alongside his teammates at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence in Sydney since arriving on Monday, has now won six full caps and was a member of the Australia squad at the Asian Cup in January, making three appearances.
"It’s gruelling, to be fair,” the central defender said when asked about Town’s push for promotion. "There are a lot of games, they’re intense. You're right in the thick of it.
"But we've done really well so far and have got a lot to play for come the end of the season, that's exactly where you want to be.”
Having scored his first Town goal of the season in Saturday’s 6-0 hammering of Sheffield Wednesday, Burgess was quizzed on whether he was feeling any pressure to net his first international goal, particularly as his central defensive partner Harry Souttar is regularly on the scoresheet for their country.
"He's [Souttar] obviously got a hell of a record,” he said. "Everyone is delighted when he scores goals, and hopefully, I can get a couple myself.
"As long as we get wins and we reach our goal as a team, that's the most important thing.”
Burgess says he and Leicester City man Souttar work together well. "It's easy to understand what the manager [Graham Arnold] wants to do as well. We're pretty well gelled,” he added.
"We all have a similar understanding and have played a few games together now so anyone new that I get the chance to play alongside, we have a good understanding and Harry’s no different.”
"It didn't take long for me to fit into what we do here, and the messages are always clear.
"Everyone's here because they’re doing well at their clubs and bringing those strengths that you do week in week out at your club is what gets you in the team here.”
Like Town, he says the Socceroos are a close-knit bunch with keeper Mat Ryan and midfielder Jackson Irvine senior players with key roles.
"They've [Ryan and Irvine] lived it for the best part of I don't know how many years now,” he said.
"There's no cliques in this group. Everyone is buzzing to see each other every time we catch up."
"It's a good group, a humble group. Everyone's willing to work hard, and there are not too many times you have to remind boys of any standards. So it sort of polices itself, I suppose.”
Reflecting on the games against the Lebanese, who are second in the group behind Australia, Burgess recalled some of Town’s matches in their previous campaign.
"Last season, my time with Ipswich in League One where teams would play a little bit different and try and stop you playing as much,” he said. "So, it’s not too unfamiliar but it’s different challenges and I’m looking forward to it.
"We have our principles as a team that we try our best to stick to. Obviously, it's tough, isn't it? Because you play against such a range of opposition.
"I've played against England one game, and next, you're playing against Bangladesh. Two completely different teams from different parts of the world, it's an experience like no other.
"But we're used to that now as a group and we do the best we can on the training ground. There are meetings and video analysis and all that sort of stuff. We have all the tools to help us prepare the best we can.
"We’ll get to know them [Lebanon] pretty well over the next few days, looking at some footage of them and working on the training ground.”