by Murray Silby

If it’s talent, resilience, determination and commitment to succeed that AFL clubs are looking for, then they should pencil in the name of Michael Mummery come draft day.
There can be no doubting Mummery’s dedication to his footy.

He’s fought back into the NT Thunder senior side after what might be described as a near-death experience.

Now 18 years-of-age, Mummery was the youngest player to ever make their debut for Thunder’s seniors, when he played his first game in 2016 at the age of 15.

He was Thunder’s rookie-of-the-year, the McAdam medalist for the NT’s best player at the under 16s championships and he was selected to tour South Africa with the Australian Schoolboys team.

Mummery was well on course to impress scouts and to get his chance in the big time, but if 2016 was an exceptionally good year for him, 2017 was an especially rubbish one for him.

“Last year I got pretty ill. I got a bug called golden staph, and that hit me pretty bad,” he said.

“I had a cut on my ankle. It was a small cut, and it was last year finals time in the NTFL. I was playing with Nightcliff. It was a wet game, muddy.

“The doctor said I might have got mud inside the cut and I went to the hospital, and they said I had melioidosis first and then I stayed the night in the hospital and then they said I had golden staph the next day.

“The doctor said I was going to have to stay in hospital for about seven weeks and I was on a drip and taking antibiotics in the hospital.

“Then after the seven weeks I had a bum bag with a drip pumping into my arm 24/7,” he explained.

Initially, Mummery said his focus was on the illness and whether he’d be able to recover in time to play a role in Nightcliff’s 2016/17 finals campaign, but as his illness dragged on playing the game at all became a motivating force behind the recovery of his long-term health.

“I was thinking about footy really at the time because the boys were in the finals and I was wondering if I’d get back on the field in time. It was really bad, and it targeted my groin area, and so it was pretty hard for me to walk at the time, and I was stressing about playing footy finals for Nightcliff,” he explained.

“After NTFL finals my main goal was to get back for the under 18s championships with Thunder. I was a bit cut up that I couldn’t because of the golden staph,” he recalled.

“Not at any stage was I going to give footy up. I was just doing little things, sticking to my recovery and small little gym programs to help my groins and stuff like that to improve.
“I was just really thinking about footy the whole time I was crook.”

Mummery said his family and friends helped get him through the toughest aspects of his illness.

“My Pop (Alan Mummery) and my Nanna (Deborah Mummery) and Mum (Dallas Mummery) mostly. Just in and out of the hospital,” he said.

“There was always one sleeping at the hospital for seven weeks, so they were just taking turns looking after me, making sure I was ok.

“My friends as well just flicking me a message when I was in there. Always checking up and they were all really helpful and good to me.”

And he says the support has continued since his return to the Thunder family, but one, in particular, has gone above and beyond the call of duty.

“A lot of the boys have got around me, especially Cameron Ilett,” Mummery said. “At training, he’s really worked with me one-on-one and helped me push through trying to get me back to my best possible condition.

“Everyone’s been a really big help trying to get me back to my best self, but he really is (the legend people say he is). He’s such a good bloke.”

Thunder coach Andrew Hodges has said now that the team is out of the NEAFL finals equation, a focus of the club’s final three games beyond this weekend’s bye will be giving the youngest players in his squad, such as Rodney Baird, Matthew Green, Dominic Forbes, Coen Hutt, Beau Schwarze and Isaak Wyatt as many opportunities as possible.

“There are a few of us boys, and we’re all really close and train together and really try and improve ourselves as well,” Mummery said.

“I’m not at my fittest yet. I’m probably about 60/70 per cent fit, but it’s just my fitness because I lost 11 kilograms when I was in hospital. I had to try and put that back on by eating the right foods, and it was a bit hard to put weight back on, and I had to get fit again, and I’m still getting fit now.”

Mummery obviously still has some challenges ahead, but given how he’s overcome those of the past, you’d count him in to overcome anything that came his way.

“My main aim is getting fit for the draft and doing some testing,” he suggested.

“I’m just hoping and praying I’ll be on an AFL list, so I’m not really fussed (where I end up) – anywhere.”

NEAFL Round 18: NT Thunder bye