Twin thing: Identical twins Tara and Maddie Hinchliffe loving life reunited at Sunshine Coast

Face shape, for example. Maddie, known for her more direct, plain-speaking style, calls hers “fat” and her sister’s “long”, while the more diplomatic Tara prefers a gentler description for her 23-year-old sibling’s rounder dial: chubby.

Midcourter Maddie, the younger by 19 minutes and 27 seconds, is also three centimetres shorter than circle defender Tara. Which hardly sounds fair, given that the self-described “peas in a pod” share so many similarities, including body shape, tidiness, maturity and punctuality.

A no from Maddie on the height thing: “It’s so annoying, Can’t stand it!’’ A yes from Tara: “I love it! My favourite thing I can say if we ever argue is, ‘Well, I’m taller’.’’

The gap is far greater in terms of games played. Round one against the Fever was Tara’s 50th, and Maddie’s third. They had collaborated just once before at national league level — as Queensland Firebirds — with their current home at Sippy Downs the second for both.

And unusually, for she has typically been a step behind her more decorated twin, Maddie arrived at their current destination first.

As a regular training partner and long-time fringe dweller down the Bruce Highway, she had managed just a one-game cameo alongside her twin in 2019, before snaring a permanent replacement player slot at the Sunny Coast for 2021. Only to then break her foot in the lead-up to round one.

Maddie was also the last Lightning player to gain a contract this year; not called up to replace the pregnant Karla Pretorius until last week. In the meantime, Tara had unexpectedly migrated north after four seasons with the Firebirds; the highly-respected vice-captain having suffered an ACL rupture at training last July.

But there was much to consider before she shifted from the club both netty-mad Hinchliffes had grown up passionately supporting, while fangirling around the likes of former captains Gabi Simpson and Laura Geitz. Speaking of fair: was this the right thing for her twin, who had been in her shadow for so long?

“I feel like I’m in Maddie’s shadow up here,’’ Tara laughs after being installed as her adopted team’s joint vice-captain behind new skipper Steph Wood.

“I love that it’s sort of her team and the girls know her way more than they know me. And that was a big thing when I made the decision. We had lots of chats about it.

“I said to Maddie, ‘I don’t want to move because you’ve found your place; this is your thing now, and I don’t want to come and take it’. But she was just like, ‘It would mean even more to me if you came up here (to) my home and now it’s going to become your home’.

“That was my biggest reason I wasn’t gonna come, I didn’t want to take Maddie’s place, but she reassured me and I think we’ve just both enjoyed it. Probably even more than I thought we would. So I’m really glad she pushed me to do it. It’s cool.’’

Mum Ruth had also been pleased for her less-heralded daughter to have had some clear air away from her higher-profile twin, given that Tara was an invitee on the Diamonds’ 2021 Constellation Cup tour of New Zealand, a 2018 Fast5 bronze medallist and represented Australia at the 2017 World Youth Cup.

“Mum’s always been very aware that I’ve always kinda sat underneath, so she was very excited for me to have that opportunity,’’ Maddie says.

“And it was different because it was the first time that I was introducing myself. Instead of Tara being like, ‘Oh, this is my sister Maddie’, so that part of it was fun and I think it did help me just grow in confidence as a player and as a person, just being in a new environment by myself for the first time.

“And then when Tara came up this year I was like, ‘Well, this is my sister Tara, you’re in my territory now’. I think it definitely helped me in confidence, just in general, to have something that was my own for a change. But now that we’re sharing it’s also just as fun.’’

Sharing the family nest

Growing up, the Hinchliffes were not just aware of the Williams sisters in tennis, but netball siblings such as the Adelaide Thunderbirds’ von Bertouchs (Laura and Nat) and Beatons (Emily and Georgia), and then Magpie duo Madi and Kelsey Browne. Long before them were the Gollans, Atkinsons, O’Donnells and plenty of others.

But twins? Not so many. If any at all.

This pair started as restless seven-year-olds on the sidelines in Brisbane watching their older sister Kaitlin, but keen to play in their own team. Started as goalers. Together at the offensive end of the court for two years. Loved it.

“Maddie was much better than me so I quickly didn’t love it and went to defence,’’ says Tara, getting no argument from her sister, who adds: “Tara quickly worked out that I was a better shooter and she wanted to go try defence.

“And then for most of our rep and under-age pathway (netball) we were still down the opposite ends, and then I gradually transitioned to wing defence, got a little bit closer to her.

“Tried goal defence for a week or two and then I was like, ‘Nuh, that’s Tara’s, I’m out, back to wing defence I go’. So it’s been super-fun playing together. It’s been a few years since we have, but now it also just feels so normal because it’s just what we’ve grown up doing, so it’s nice. A very comfortable feeling.’’

As Tara’s star rose, starting with a fine debut season for the Firebirds, Maddie was in the wings, awaiting her own chance. How hard was it to be the twin always on a rung below?

“I just play for the love of the game, so I wasn’t really too concerned about what level I was playing at,’’ she says, ahead of Saturday’s Q-clash against their old side.

“I think it was super-special growing up, we always idolised the Firebirds girls and went to all their camps, and got all the autographs, and then I was like, ‘Wow, Tara’s in the Firebirds, this is pretty cool!’

“So I’ve always just been super-happy for her and I guess I’ve always been lucky that I’ve been in the training partner program or something so I’ve been involved.

“I think it would be harder if I was sitting at State League and she was up in the bright lights, but I feel like I’ve been pretty close the whole way, so it doesn’t bother me. I just get really excited for her and any opportunity that she gets.’’

Game day, together at last

Round one, 2022. Perth’s RAC Arena. Tara Hinchliffe starts at goal defence on debut for her new club in her ahead-of-schedule comeback from a knee reconstruction.

Maddie Hinchliffe comes off the bench into wing defence early in the second quarter, having finally made her own way onto court as part of the listed 10, while proudly sharing the family transverse line.

The pair has an understanding honed from years in the backyard, and many more at junior level plus, countless training sessions. Something innate, instinctive.

“I trust that she’ll just be there when I need her, and she always has been,’’ Tara says.

“And the other thing is that, like sisters, you can be pretty honest and blunt to each other so on court if something’s happening we can sort it out, and I feel like we get on the same page probably a bit quicker than you would if you were trying to make sure everyone else was happy on court, too.’’

Indeed, when they chat through the middle of the game, they laugh that they can encapsulate in about five words what with others would be a full conversation.

On Sunday, their Fever opponents were having their own chats, given the unique optics. “‘This one’s yours, this one’s mine… no, that one’s yours, take her’, like they were trying to work out who was who,’’ Maddie says.

If there was one characteristic Tara would give her sister, it’s the confidence she has in Maddie that she doubts she has in herself. Just to enjoy the moment, realise where she is, and not cast her mind too far ahead.

“I think she’s starting to have that belief, but the last few years she’s (been) her own worst critic and I just wish sometimes she could be a bit kinder to herself.’’

Maddie, by comparison, would like Tara’s positive mindset, which was never more apparent than after her ACL tear, when she estimates she was upset for about an hour, and then ready to start her comeback.

“I really loved rehab. I think I’m the only person who might say that but I really loved every moment of it!’’ Tara admits. “And when they said, ‘You can play next weekend for the Hobart game’ I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’m ready – I like this’.’’

Her distraught sister, meantime, was alone in Caloundra when she heard the news, crying about the unfairness of it all. Her offer to drive down and provide support to an injured party who told her not to worry, for it all was fine, was calmly declined. No wallowing in self-pity. Or any need to fuss.

And a quality Maddie has that Tara would like?

“A lot of things! I think that Maddie’s actually a much better player than I am. She’s got a lot of game smarts. And just her resilience. Her fitness. Her strength.

“When I first came here I was like ‘Wow, I thought I was strong, but you’re stronger, so I need to beat you,’, and that’s probably why it’s been a great thing, because pre-season you have to compare yourself to yourself, but we can probably compare ourselves to each other, which probably pushes us both along a bit more, too.’’

Same same, but different

Off the court, the Hinchliffes are almost the anti-Jo-Hartens: the least competitive people they know.

Their mum, they laugh, may say otherwise, and Monopoly Deal, currently, is an exception to the general rule.

The pair shared a bedroom until they were about 15, then hugged a common wall in separate rooms that were a mirror image in layout and tidiness, if not colour scheme, for Maddie has always been the blue twin, and Tara’s (slightly waning) preference for pink.

On the day of our interviews they sat down to breakfast in their shared house in Caloundra wearing identical clothes, meaning someone needed to change. Which, as the unofficial understanding goes, tends to be whoever got dressed last. Tara, this time.

“They’re not even big arguments,’’ she says. “We fight for 10 minutes, and then we get bored and we’re like, ‘All right. Sorry.’

Personality-wise, both say they are quiet and introverted until they’re comfortable in an environment, but have enormous fun together.

“I think we’ve always had each other to talk to so it’s kind of like, ‘Oh why need anyone else?’,’’ says Maddie, the business graduate who is more forthright and impatient while nurturing psychology graduate Tara can leave dishes unwashed for half an hour. If she’s allowed.

Maddie: “I think we’re mostly similar in a lot of ways. And we’re always saying we’re looking more alike as we get older, so I feel like we’re just getting more and more similar. And we’re living together, just by ourselves now, which probably doesn’t help things.’’

Last year was their first year of real separation, after Maddie joined the Lightning and spent most of her time on the coast.

“We’d notice we’d bicker if we weren’t seeing each other much,” Maddie says, “but if we were seeing each other a lot then we were ‘playing nicely’ still.

“We’ve just always been so super-close that nothing really seems to change. Once we get a boyfriend that’ll probably change the dynamic, if one of us did that. But until then it’s just us!’’

Perhaps finding a male set of twins might be the answer, she suggests, because “they’d understand it.’’

Splitting the difference

Maddie has told Lightning coach Kylee Byrne that she deserves a commission for helping lure Tara from the Firebirds, and the dual flag winners’ more recent recruit admits that, along with the chance to live in Caloundra, “our favourite place”, her sister did play a significant role.

“We did probably miss each other a bit last year, being split, but I think it was great too, to have our own time and work out ourselves first, and it’s made this year really exciting.

“I want to play with Maddie and I knew that it would be a now or never situation, so I’m really glad I made that decision.

“It was a really hard one, because I loved my time at Firebirds, and they know I still love them and there’s nothing against them. I think I was just ready for something new: a new coach, some new girls and I’ve really loved it. It’s worked out pretty perfectly.’’

It also meant she was there on the day Maddie learnt of her call-up from Byrne — fun fact: a twin herself — to replace the great Pretorius in Sunshine Coast’s team of 10 for the 2022 season.

Training had finished and the Hinchliffes were driving off for lunch when Byrne asked Maddie to return for a chat. A few minutes later the coach texted Tara in the car park and asked her to come and look at some game footage.

“And I was like, ‘That’s really random, because she doesn’t know that I’m here!’

“So I walked upstairs and into the room and I could see the two of them, and Kylee was trying not to smile or cry and Maddie wouldn’t look at me, and I was like, ‘I think this might be the moment’.

“It was really exciting and special to be there straight away to give her a hug. But I was really glad that Kylee talked to Maddie by herself, because it’s easy to think that we’re twins and do everything together but that was Maddie’s moment so I was really glad she did it that way.’’

On court, Tara says they have different personalities; she smiles at the umpires more often, and has tried to train Maddie out of glaring, which tends to be counter-productive.

They play different styles of defensive and attacking games, and the fact they are rarely fighting for the same position helps too.

Not that teammate Kate Walsh (nee Shimmin) would probably realise it, given it is the 30-year-old defender who has been named and shamed by Wood and others for her chronic inability to tell those pesky Hinchliffes apart.

Other than the face shape and the height gap and Maddie wearing the WD bib while Tara is more likely to be GD/GK, here’s another hint.

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Now that they no longer wear the different coloured shoes of their junior days to help their teammates out, the duo has made a hairdo pact: Maddie will have the bun, and Tara the ponytail.

Soon enough, even Walsh might catch on. Or not.

“I think she has gotten a bit better,’’ Tara laughs. “I’ll give her credit over the weekend; I think she’s starting to make an effort. Probably more that she’s sick of being paid out for it, but you’ve gotta learn, so I think she’ll get there.’’