Good Shepherd Lutheran College hosts T for Thomas AFL match for sepsis awareness

A Top End school is raising awareness for sepsis by renewing its annual T for Thomas AFL matches. Here’s what the cause means to students.

A Top End school has relaunched its annual School of Origin AFL tournament to honour the memory of one of its students.

Yvette Clarke said her nephew Thomas Snell died in 2017 after his flu symptoms evolved into sepsis.

She said Good Shepherd Lutheran College’s annual T for Thomas footy match was encouraging and a great way to raise awareness for the deadly illness.

Good Shepherd Lutheran College and Taminmin play T for Thomas AFL matches to raise awareness for sepsis. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“It’s just beautiful that (the students) are taking the baton and running with it rather than me just going, ‘we need this’,” Ms Clarke said.

“When we’re talking about flu season – which obviously is very prominent now – sepsis is what we need to be looking out for.

“Most of us get the flu and we’re good but if you’re suffering from the flu worse than you’ve ever felt, get yourself checked for sepsis because that would have saved Thomas’ life.”

Michael Bartie and Nicholas Harrington at Good Shepherd Lutheran College and Taminmin play T for Thomas AFL matches to raise awareness for sepsis. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Year 12 students Michael Bartie and Nicholas Harrington organised the game’s revamp after it stopped because of Covid.

Michael said they were good friends with Thomas’ younger brother Patrick and hoped to support his family,as well as Thomas’ legacy.

“We’ve been talking about this since last year,” he said.

“Nick and I went to the head of sport late last year and we gave him the idea and said, ‘we should really bring it back, it’d be a good thing for the community’.”

Nicholas said Taminmin had always represented the School of Origin “reds” to GSLC’s “blues”, but other schools were interested in getting involved in the future.

Bonnie Brown, Gracie Busuttil, Kiara Rogers and Maddie Tait played for Taminmin during the T for Thomas AFL matches. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Taminmin players Gracie Busuttil and Maddy Tate said Thomas played for the same AFL club – Southern Districts Crocs – as them.

“(Thomas’ legacy) is really important to all of us,” Gracie said.

“We all really want to win and I know us girls are determined to bring home a win but I think the Good Shepherd girls are also determined.”

Alex Eadie and Ben Hanna at the Good Shepherd Lutheran College and Taminmin play T for Thomas AFL matches to raise awareness for sepsis. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Good Shepherd players Alex Eadie and Ben Hanna said the school’s boys and girls teams had been training hard to prepare for the matches.

“We’re the underdogs but we like that, we try our best,” Alex said.

Proceeds from the game’s merchandise will go towards raising awareness for sepsis.

Originally published as Good Shepherd Lutheran College hosts T for Thomas AFL match for sepsis awareness