Every interview Brandon does, it inevitably comes up … "so you are the brother of Mitch". He knows it's coming and rolls his eyes with a smile when it does. He politely answers because firstly he knows that it comes with the territory when your brother is among the best cricketers in the world and secondly because he is genuinely interested in his brother's career and vice versa.
So he warmly embraces it, because while they chose different sports, they are both sportsmen and grew up playing sport together.
"Mitch is very respectful of Brandon's career and always says he would love to see articles about Brandon where he is not mentioned. He does not want to take any attention away from what Brandon has done," the boys' mum, Julie May, said.
Team Brandon: Starc's family were in the stands to cheer him on.
Photo: Supplied
The boys played cricket together when they were young, with Brandon often filling in for his brother's team. He was four years younger, so it was a big step up, but at the small cricket club numbers were often low. Mitch was a wicketkeeper and batsman back then, Brandon bowled quite sharply.
"I encourage the kids to play all sports and try everything. Mitchell was quite good at soccer so Brandon played rugby league for a while instead but his body wasn't really suited to that – so he came back again to soccer," Julie said.
They both played cricket, though, and Brandon was doing well at athletics. When he was about 14, Brandon was picked for a rep cricket team and was told to make a choice between cricket and aths, because a carnival they were to play in clashed with the athletics. He chose athletics.
"He made the decision and it was the right choice for Brandon. He was a bowler as well, he was quite quick, he was pretty handy," Julie said.
"Early on he did hurdles and high jump and a coach at the Hills school spotted him at a carnival doing quite well and they got him in there and from there he really focused on athletics and the high jump.
"His mindset is you have to do it really well or you don't do it."
Mitch wanted to be in the stands on Wednesday night, but couldn't get there because of other commitments. He was also mindful that if he did get there he would invariably become part of the focus and draw attention away from his little brother on his night.
"As a family we were trying to work out a way of getting him in there without anyone noticing, but that is pretty hard now he is so big!" Julie said.
Starc with his biggest fans, minus brother Mitch, who was unable to make it.
Photo: Supplied
"He really wanted to be there for Brandon but also wanted it to be about Brandon, not him."
Brandon's mum, his two sisters, Amanda and Taylah, their 11-year-old brother Braith and Julie's husband Brett were all there in the crowd as Team Brandon with a sign telling him to "Jump for the Stars". He did.
They saw him win gold when he cleared 2.32 metres, which was also more than he had jumped before. His dad Paul Starc was also in the stands.
"Get in there boy! Gold Medal at Com games. Bloody awesome @brandonstarc93. Super proud young fella," Mitchell tweeted when he won.
Sadly none of the family could be in the stands for the medal ceremony on Thursday night. Normally the medal ceremonies are the same night as the event but the high jump finished so late they held it over until the next night. And for the next night they couldn't get tickets.
"It's frustrating but we were there to see him win gold and that was just amazing," Julie said.
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Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on Boots for Kids. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victorias cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books – five sports books and two true crime books.
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