HAVING an older brother represent Queensland at your chosen sport can help a player's career in many ways. For inline hockey player Alec Steedman, one of the benefits is not one which springs immediately into mind.

Alec, 12, and Matt, 14, both represented Queensland at the recent Australian titles in Perth.

"I like it because he picks up the stuff I leave behind," Alec said. "It was also good to have someone I know there, because I didn’t know my teammates well."

Matt, an attacking specialist, was a member of the Queensland under-13 team, along with fellow Cairns player Josh Smith, which captured the gold medal at the nationals after a golden goal 2-1 win over Victoria in the final.

Defender Alec’s under-11 team lost to Victoria 6-1 in the final.

"I never expected to be in the Queensland team, but we ended up with the gold medal which was good," Matt said.

Alec added: "I was quite surprised that I got into the Queensland team and I thought, ‘If they’re desperate enough to put me in the team, we’re not going to go too well’."

Matt was named as a reserve for his division’s Australian team to tour New Zealand and possibly Hong Kong next year.

Both brothers are also talented musicians, although Matt is viewed by his family as the "sporty" one and Alec as being more serious about his music.

Matt, who plays in the Cairns senior competition to improve his skills against older opponents, trains six hours each week and Alec 4.5 hours.

In addition to music lessons, the pair also swim and run to improve their fitness and hone their skills on a 3.5m x 2.5m piece of lino on their family’s Cairns North patio.

A fourth Cairns player, Rob Meakin, was a member of the Queensland team which finished with the silver medal in under-21 competition.

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