She has been "one step behind" her older sister for as long as she can remember, but Meredith Bone is planning to use her "twin connection" with Hockeyroos defender Edwina to her advantage.
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Separated by 13 minutes at birth and now more than 3700 kilometres in distance, the Bone twins will be reunited when they line up for the Canberra Strikers in the Australian Hockey League in October.
The pair were inseparable when they were living in Canberra together before Edwina relocated to Perth 18 months ago to join the national squad. But it was a move that paid off handsomely, with Edwina having racked up more than 50 caps for the Hockeyroos, including winning gold at this year's Commonwealth Games.
Meredith is a quality player in her own right as an integral part of the Strikers and the captain of the University of Canberra women's Capital League 1 team. She will be playing up front and looking for Edwina to feed her plenty of goal-scoring opportunities.
"It's kind of good because Edwina's a defender and I'm a striker, so she can pass me the ball," Meredith said. "I think we have that kind of twin connection thing on the field and [are] good playing different positions.
"It's probably because we've grown up around each other and are able to read how each other plays, and it's easy to work together on the field."
The sisters grew up in Orange before Edwina moved to Canberra and was selected in the ACT under-21s team.
Meredith followed the same path a year later, and does not mind being in the shadow of her "older" sibling. "I've been one step behind her the whole time," she said. "I love playing with her; it's so much fun."
Edwina said: "I miss her all the time. She understands why I'm in Perth and she has a job here and it's pretty important to her, so we're both in different places for different reasons.
"Ideally, we'd love to live together and we lived together here.
"It's been hard, but it's kind of the choice you make when you live on the other side of the country."
The Bone sisters will be two of the most experienced players for the Strikers at the AHL, but Meredith is quick to point out where she stands. "Eddie is 13 minutes older," she said.
"It's always good because our team in the AHL isn't very old. We've got one girl that turns 31 at tournament and Eddie's the second-oldest. I always claim I'm the third-oldest, not the second-oldest."
