Former AFL star Nicky Winmar jailed for assault, removed from Hall of Fame

Former AFL player Nicky Winmar has been sentenced to six months in jail plus a 12-month community corrections order for assaulting a woman in Cohuna, northern Victoria.

Magistrate Trieu Huynh handed down the sentence at Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 28 August 2026. Winmar, 60, was found guilty of three counts of assault after a trial in which he pleaded not guilty — the court found the charges proven beyond reasonable doubt.

The assault took place in May 2025. The victim told the court Winmar grabbed her arm and twisted it, dragged her by her ponytail, and smashed her head against a door. He was convicted in July 2026, and prosecutors had asked the court to impose a jail term.

Winmar's lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, argued for a community corrections order instead of imprisonment, citing Winmar's depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use. Dann told the court jail should be a "last resort." Investigations were also underway to determine whether Winmar had an acquired brain injury or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a degenerative brain condition linked to repeated head knocks — from his playing career.

Winmar's legal team immediately appealed both the conviction and the sentence. He was released on bail on the condition he not contact any of the prosecution's witnesses. His appeal will be heard at a later date.

This is not Winmar's first conviction for violence. In 2019 he received a community corrections order, including 100 hours of community service, for the drunken assault of a taxi driver.

The sentencing carries consequences beyond the courtroom. Winmar has been removed from the Australian Football Hall of Fame, and a bronze statue commemorating his famous stand against racial abuse — erected outside Perth Stadium — has been taken down.

That statue depicted a moment from 1993, when Winmar, then playing for St Kilda, lifted his jumper and pointed to his skin in response to racist abuse from the crowd. It became one of the most recognisable images in Australian sport and a catalyst for the AFL's eventual racial vilification policies.

The removal of both the Hall of Fame induction and the statue underscores how completely this conviction has severed Winmar's ties to the game's official heritage. For a generation of fans who knew him as one of the most gifted and courageous players of his era, the fall is steep.

Winmar played 251 senior AFL games across St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs between 1987 and 1999. He was a two-time All Australian and won the Saints' best and fairest three times. His on-field brilliance was never in question. What has followed it — in courtrooms, in two states, across more than a decade — is a pattern the game's institutions can no longer overlook.