One of Australian Football League’s most high-profile former players is preparing to learn his sentence Friday, after being convicted of a brutal assault on a woman at a regional Victorian motel, with prosecutors pushing for immediate jail time and his legal team advocating for a community-focused correction sentence.
Now 60 years old, Winmar, a 13-season veteran of the elite AFL competition, appeared at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court just before 9:30 a.m. on Friday, avoiding assembled reporters and entering the building through a lesser-used side entrance. The former football star was found guilty in July this year on three separate counts of assault, though he was cleared of a more severe charge of intentionally causing grievous injury.
The court heard details of the attack, which unfolded in May last year at a motel in northern Victoria. Winmar targeted a woman who cannot be identified for legal reasons, twisting her arm, dragging her across the room by her hair, and slamming her face into a solid door four separate times in a prolonged, violent outburst.
In early August, prosecutor Annina Tropea made a formal submission to the court urging a custodial jail sentence for Winmar. She described the offending as prolonged, unprovoked, and unrelentingly violent, telling the court that the physical and psychological harm inflicted on the victim would have long-lasting, profound impacts that would continue for years to come.
Winmar’s legal defense team, led by senior barrister Dermot Dann KC, has pushed back against calls for jail time, arguing that a community corrections order is the far more appropriate sentence for the former athlete. Dann told the court that at the time of the assault, Winmar was experiencing significant personal instability and was effectively unhoused. In the 12 months since the attack, however, the former player has made major, tangible progress to rebuild his life, including giving up alcohol entirely to address underlying personal issues. While Winmar continues to maintain he is innocent of the charges, he has acknowledged the seriousness of the offenses he was convicted of.
During a pre-sentence hearing held on August 6, presiding Magistrate Trieu Huynh ordered a full assessment to determine whether Winmar was eligible for a community corrections order. At that time, the magistrate explicitly noted he had not yet reached a final decision on sentencing, leaving open the possibility of a standalone community order, or a combined sentence that includes both jail time and a period of community correction. All eyes are now on the Bendigo court as Winmar’s legal team and the prosecution await the magistrate’s final decision on his sentence.