A hockey player has died after being bitten by a king brown snake at hockey fields in the Northern Territory.

Karl Berry, 26, was at Marrara Hockey Centre in Darwin on Tuesday evening when he picked up a snake, thinking it was a python, and threw it into bushes.

Karl Berry on the left with his dad Ian in the middle and brother Martin on the right.

The snake bit him on the hand, but he did not seek medical help because he thought the snake was harmless.

He then went for a two-kilometre run – which ambulance officers said was one of the worst things he could have done as it pumped the venom through his system – and collapsed when he returned.