Orazio Fantasia


Orazio Maurice Fantasia is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League. He was recruited by the Essendon Football Club with the 55th overall selection in the 2013 national draft.

AFL career

Fantasia graduated from Norwood Morialta High School in 2013. Fantasia played his junior football for the Payneham Norwood Union Football Club where his talent was identified by South Australian Hall of Famer Garry McIntosh who selected him in the Club's senior side as a 15 year old. He made his senior debut for Norwood in the South Australian National Football League in 2013. In only his fourth game he was a member of their 2013 SANFL premiership side.
He made his debut against in round 20, 2014 and was dropped for the following round but regained his spot in round 22 against the, replacing Dyson Heppell who missed the game due to a broken hand. In the final round of the 2015 season, he was rewarded with a nomination for the AFL Rising Star where he recorded 27 disposals and five marks in the Bombers' three-point victory over.
Fantasia received a second nomination for the Rising Star after his three goals, eleven disposals, seven contested possessions, and seven tackles in round 17, 2016.
Of recent times, he signed a three year deal, keeping him at Essendon until the end of the 2021 season. This dismissed any speculation that he would opt to move to his native South Australia.
On the Tenth of October 2019, Orazio turned his back on Port Adelaide, by declaring he will remain with Essendon.

Statistics

! colspan=3| Career
! 75
! 110
! 77
! 567
! 471
! 1038
! 273
! 240
! 1.5
! 1.0
! 7.6
! 6.3
! 13.8
! 3.6
! 3.2