HOCKEY: Junior hockey champion Bailey Rutledge has returned home to Warwick after winning the National Under-15 Hockey Championships in Wollongong in late April.

Rutledge was part of a Queensland team that went through the two-week tournament undefeated, drawing only once with New South Wales.

Last year Rutledge joined the Queensland team for the U13 national championships in Perth, but the team fell short of the medal placings.

The 14-year-old's mum Mandy Rutledge said the tournament was the first her son had been to where the squad stayed together as a team.

"In the younger age groups, the kids stay with their parents in most cases, so this was a new experience for a lot of them,” she said.

"Bailey absolutely loved that part of it, all the extra responsibility.

"The kids all had to make sure they got themselves to training and meetings and ready for the bus so they wouldn't get left behind.”

The Queensland team played one game each day of the tournament, with two rest days in the round-robin format.

"Most states brought two teams to the tournament, their first team and a developmental squad,” Rutledge said.

"Except the smaller states like Tasmania, ACT and Northern Territory, who just had the one team.”

Queensland defeated Western Australia 3-1 in the final.

Next for Bailey is a school tournament in Toowoomba, where he'll join a Darling Downs 13-19 years age group team.

From there he will be eligible for Queensland selection and, pending that, the opportunity for selection in an Australian U16 schoolboys side.