Outrage as football players 'black-up' as Serena and Venus Williams during 'Mad Monday' bash

Tasmanian Penguins Football Club players mimic Williams sisters [Courtesy]

Three amateur football players have caused outrage by blacking themselves up as the Williams sisters and a prominent Aussie rules player.

Tasmanian Penguins Football Club player Beau Grundy put up a social media post of he and two pals painted black as part of a 'Mad Monday' celebration.

The post has since been taken down, but it shows Grundy as Sydney Swans player Aliir Aliir with pals Mitch Stanley and Matt Chamberlain dressed up as the Williams sisters.

Mad Monday is where Aussie Rules players traditionally celebrate their end of the season.

Underneath the image, which was uploaded to a Facebook group which features costumes from the day, was written "William sisters and Aliir Aliir #MadMonday".

The players in the shocking picture uploaded to Facebook [Courtesy]

It led to a wave of criticism online with Hayley tweeting: "Tasmanian Penguins. Do you have a comment about the players in your team wearing ‘black-face’..? Disgusting. They should be stood down immediately and permanently. Unless you support racists?

"Let this team know what you think about the latest display of repulsive racism."

While another said: "How the f**k has Australia not gotten the memo that blackface is not a thing that you do, like ever?

"Here is a memo to White Australians everywhere because you’ve missed the last thousand memos on this: BLACKFACE IS RACIST! STOP DOING IT! IT'S NOT OK!!!"

Tasmanian Penguins Football Club players [Courtesy]

The Daily Mail Australia has contacted the players and club for comment.

Aliir is a high-profile Sudanese player in the league, while Serena Williams hit the headlines in Australia after a 'racist' cartoon of her was published by The Herald Sun.

In the US Open final 36-year-old American athlete was handed an initial warning during the game for illegal coaching plus a penalty point for racket abuse and a game penalty for calling the umpire, Carlos Ramos, a "thief".

It led to Australian cartoonist, Mark Knight, created a cartoon shared on Twitter and featured in the Melbourne newspaper, The Herald Sun, showing Williams with baby's dummy on the floor.

Many said it was overtly racist, but in an article published on The Herald Sun website, Knight defended his work and said he was "amazed" it had received such a strong reaction.

He explained: "I drew this cartoon Sunday night after seeing the US Open final, and seeing the world’s best tennis player have a tantrum and thought that was interesting.

"The world has just gone crazy."

He added: "The cartoon about Serena is about her poor behaviour on the day, not about race."