Tarrant, who turns 24 on Anzac Day, was just eight when Chris was drafted by Collingwood with pick No. 8 in the 1997 national draft.
But he says since Chris' retirement at the end of last year, after 268 games and 367 goals in 15 seasons, the 2003 All Australian forward has become an invaluable sounding board.
"I speak to him a little bit. He's obviously got great experience about the game," Tarrant says.
"The stuff that he tells me is very blunt, he can tell me things that are going to help me.
"I listen to him, besides the coaches (he's) probably the next person in line."
Tarrant knows Chris, now 32, is someone worth taking advice from.
In his first stint at Collingwood, he led the Magpies' goalkicking in five consecutive seasons (2001-05) and finished second in the 2003 best and fairest.
After crossing to Fremantle in the 2006 trade period, Chris spent his first two seasons at Freo in attack before transforming himself into one of the AFL's best key defenders, a role he continued when he returned to play the final two seasons of his career at Collingwood.
As a junior, Tarrant never felt any pressure to live up to Chris' achievements, saying watching Chris' experiences in the AFL had helped prepare him when he was drafted by North with pick No. 15 in the 2007 national draft.
"It's probably helped me more than hindered me learning through his experiences … getting to know the system before I was actually in it," Tarrant says.
"It's probably helped me a fair bit."
With his own career just 27 games old, Tarrant acknowledges he has a long way to go to match Chris' achievements.
At 196cm and 97kg, Tarrant is 3cm taller and 3kg heavier than Chris was during his last season at Collingwood, although he concedes he is not as quick.
But already Tarrant has shown he shares his brother's ability to move between defence and attack.
After finally overcoming the shoulder injuries that ruined his first two seasons at North, Tarrant got his AFL start in defence, playing nine games there from 2010-11.
However, he was drafted from the Bendigo Pioneers as a key forward, and it's been in attack that he's flourished in the past year.
After being in and out of North's team early last year, Tarrant finally cemented a senior spot from round 12, when he and fellow talls Drew Petrie and Lachlan Hansen joined up to stretch opposition defences.
Tarrant finished last season second at North for marks inside forward 50 and fifth for goals (23), and has started this season in solid form, kicking two goals against Geelong last Sunday and taking an equal game-high three contested marks.
However, he is more critical of his start to 2013, saying his form has been "coming along slowly".
"I'm not in good form or anything like that. I've got a lot of work to do," Tarrant says.
"It's good that our three forwards are working well again together this year. But obviously the ball movement against Geelong was a lot better and it helped us out a lot."
Tarrant says North will take a lot of confidence into its clash with the Sydney Swans at Blundstone Arena on Saturday despite its 0-2 start to the season.
"You don't want to start off a season 0-3, but we're taking what we think is good form into the Sydney match.
"We have a lot of support down in Hobart as well, it's like a second home ground for us so we're looking forward to it."
Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
