It's been a while since an Australian was a regular part of a Premier League lineup. Youngsters are plugging away in academies, highlighted by Brighton & Hove Albion prospect Cameron Peupion, while Joe Gauci just made a record move to back up Emiliano Martínez at Aston Villa. And, obviously, there's Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur. But there's no week-in, week-out starters. It's a frequently bemoaned topic Down Under, not surprising given that memories of when Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, and Tim Cahill were some of the league's most notable in the mid-2000s run deep.
This season, Championship stars Cameron Burgess and Massimo Luongo are doing their best to change that with Ipswich Town. With three matchdays remaining in the campaign, and Kieran McKenna's squad sitting atop the league heading into them, it would appear the Tractor Boys are in a strong position to earn promotion to the Premier League.
At present, Ipswich (89 points), Leicester City (88), and Leeds United (87) are all engaged in a dogfight to avoid the playoffs and automatically punch their ticket back to the Premier League. Southampton now sit on 84 points, just four back of the automatic promotion places, with a game in hand and looking to crash the party.
The rewards for promotion are obvious. Going up is one of the states closest to nirvana that anyone in football can experience; the catharsis of recognition and reward for the work that has been undertaken to get there, and the unbridled optimism that comes with a new journey on a new stage. And if spreadsheets are more your thing, it's incredibly lucrative, too, with tens of millions of pounds in increased revenues on offer to the clubs that reach the Premier League.
Retiring from international duty, in part, to focus on helping Ipswich to secure promotion, Luongo has started 34 of 40 matches for Ipswich this season, while Burgess has been a rock at the back of Ipswich's XI for 35 of the 36 matches for which he's been available.
Trips to Hull and Coventry await Luongo, Burgess, and their Ipswich teammates before they end their campaign at home against Huddersfield Town on May 4. Win out, and Ipswich will return to the Premier League for the first time since 2001-02 and have become just the fourth side to earn back-to-back promotions from League One to the Championship to the Premier League.
Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton are also in the mix for automatic promotion, with each facing their own challenges in the remaining fixtures. The race for promotion in the Championship is heating up, and Australian players like Luongo and Burgess are at the forefront of this exciting battle for a spot in the Premier League.
