Burns has joined Newcastle on a season-long loan from Scottish club Hearts.

With Jets coach Ernie Merrick and CEO Lawrie McKinna both Scots, the pair had been keeping an eye on the 20-year-old fullback who was looking for regular senior football.

"I had offers in England and Scotland, but it probably would have been a step back," Burns told FTBL.

"I was looking at options abroad and people from Australia contacted Hearts. Obviously the Jets have a Scottish CEO and manager, so I don’t know if it was through their Scottish links, I’m not sure.

"But soon after I got a couple of offers from abroad, in Europe as well, and then the offer from Australia came. And I spoken to the Jets and they were really keen to have me.

"I spoke to a couple of people I know, the likes of Aaron Hughes who was Melboune City, he spoke quite highly of the A-League. I just thought it was a great challenge, both for the football and on a personal level, I thought it would be a great opportunity.

"Australia is a country I’ve always admired from afar, I know quite a few people travelling here. Things just clicked into place at the right time."

At Hearts Burns played alongside Australians Oliver Bozanic, Ben Garrucio and Ryan Edwards.

The trio helped convince him of the merits of a stint in the A-League.

"They were like my agents!" Burns laughed.

"They helped me quite a lot. Lawrie actually rang Oli Bozanic to get a report on me. He must have said all the good things and left out all the bad, haha. The next thing I knew there was an offer. All three of them spoke very highly of the league.

"It’s a good league. I think it’s a level where if I do really well this season, come back to Hearts and I will be in a good position to fight for my place. It’s a good opportunity to prove myself at this level."

The defender, who joined Hearts in 2018, is hoping impressing in the A-League can help win him his first senior cap for Northern Ireland.

Burns has represented his country at both Under-19 and Under-21 level.

He is also planning to take up surfing in the Hunter, once he he improved his surfing and conquered rip tides.

"I’m really enjoying Newcastle, it's beautiful," he said.

"There’s some lovely beaches. It’s very quiet, compared to Edinburgh. The people here are very chilled, very welcoming. I’ll probably try and volunteer to keep busy. I need to learn how to swim first.

"I can swim a bit, but not very comfortably in the ocean. I’d love to learn to surf, so it’s a work in progress…. Australia’s beautiful. I’m enjoying it so far… I want to travel as much as I can, see as much as I can."

Burns is also enjoying the different style of play in Australia, compared with Scotland's more robust and physical brand of football.

"The style of play here is different," he admits.

"I’m really enjoying the different way. Here people don’t really cross the ball from deep, it’s all more lower crosses. People don’t like to head the ball as much. It’s more like a tennis match in Scotland.

"The ball goes from end to the other so much you get whiplash. I’m enjoying it [here]. In Scotland there’s probably more of a focus on physicality, but at the same time the wingers track right back and the forward players are expected to do more defending.

"Here there’s maybe more, you can get a bit overloaded. But it’s good learning. It’s probably a bit more difficult to defend, but more enjoyable attacking. I researched the league a lot before coming out. The standard’s good, it’s quite similar.

"The quality of the play and training is quite similar, it’s just slightly different styles. I’ve been impressed by the league and the training facilties. Playing in the heat will be a challenge for me. Hopefully I can back to Hearts really, really fit, and as red as a lobster!"