Fabian Natoli, who played for Manly Marlins before being snapped up by French club, has outraged social media with petrol photo
WARNING: Offensive material. Former northern beaches rugby star, Fabian Natoli, has apologised after posing for a picture dressed as a traditional Aboriginal person holding a petrol can.
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A NORTHERN beaches rugby star has apologised after posing for a picture dressed as an Aborigine holding a petrol can.
Fabian Natoli, who played for Manly Marlins before being snapped up by French Top 14 club Bordeaux in 2014 aged 19, has come under fire by indigenous identities after the image, taken at a party, circulated online.
He’s now made his Instagram social media account private.
Singer Thelma Plum called him: dead s**t of the day” online.
She later removed her posts, saying: “I am hoping that they will learn from this and think twice in the future before being so incredibly stupid.
“Also I would just like to add, Aboriginal people are the oldest civilisation in the world. We have incredible stories and a long, long history. We are not props for your jokes. Where is the respect? Educate yourselves.”
A rapper called, Briggs aka The Iron Recluse also hit out at the image.
He said: “Goose of the Day goes to the white guy w/ Dreadlocks” and also other images posted by Natoli appearing to target Aborigines. One was a picture of indigenous Australian’s captioned “#blockyournose & lockthecar.”
Halfback Natoli apologised for his latest post then made his Instagram account private.
He posted: “I’ve said sorry and I genuinely meant it. I dressed as an Aboriginal (sic) to an Australian themed party, no racism intended, saw the jerry can picked it up to what I thought was a funny photo, clearly knowing now that it wasn’t and it was offensive to a lot of people.
He said he’d been threatened online and added: “It was dumb and apart from what you all think I’m not a racist honestly did it just for some “humor” (sic)
Natoli, who played for Manly Marlins and was also a Sea Eagles junior player was spotted by an agent and landed the year-long contract in France two years ago.
He told the Manly Daily in 2014: “This will be good for my development training in a professional environment at a young age and learning from all the guys over there.”
The former St Augustine’s College student was dubbed “one of footy’s hottest properties” after playing both representative league and union. He played Harold Matthews, SG Ball and also under-20s with the Sea Eagles.
In rugby he represented NSW Schoolboys, Australia A Schoolboys and the Australian under-18s. Natoli, whose mother is Italian is not currently listed as playing for the Bordeaux Beagles on the club’s website.
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