Fairfax Newspapers reported Friday that 26-year-old Karl Berry was cleaning up at Marrara Hockey Centre in Darwin on Tuesday when he picked up a snake. He thought it was a nonvenomous python and threw it into the bushes.
Berry was bitten on the hand but did not realize the bite was poisonous and went on a 1.2-mile training run before collapsing.
St. John's Ambulance operations manager Craig Garraway was quoted as saying Berry was conscious when paramedics arrived. But he took up to 15 minutes to mention the bite. Berry, captain of the Commerce-Pints team, died Wednesday.
Garraway said the run pumped the venom around his system faster.
