One of Australian Rules Football’s most celebrated former players, ex-St Kilda great Nicky Winmar, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted on three assault charges, with prosecutors warning the 60-year-old could spend time behind bars for the violent 2023 attack on a woman.
Last month, a court found Winmar guilty of the assault that took place at a northern Victorian motel last May. He was cleared of a more severe charge of intentionally causing injury, but the details of the assault presented to court remain graphic. Prosecutors alleged the former athlete twisted the victim’s arm, dragged her across the room by her hair, and slammed her head against the motel door four separate times. Winmar has continuously maintained his innocence throughout the legal proceedings.
During a recent sentencing hearing at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, the victim shared the profound long-term trauma the attack has inflicted on her daily life. In an emotional victim impact statement delivered while Winmar sat hunched in the courtroom, tapping his foot on the floor, the woman described how the violence has fundamentally changed who she is. “I’m not the same person I once was due to the trauma I have experienced,” she told the court. “I find myself wondering what’s wrong with me? Why have I changed so much?”
The victim detailed persistent psychological harm, including waking in the middle of the night with uncontrollable crying spells, regular panic attacks, and relentless intrusive thoughts of the attack. “The incident would play in my mind over and over and over again, it was relentless,” she said. “The nightmares and flashbacks … visions of being overpowered.”
Lead prosecutor Annina Tropea has urged the court to impose an immediate custodial sentence, framing Winmar’s offenses as protracted, violent, and persistent. She emphasized that the harm inflicted on the victim has already been profound and will continue to impact her life long into the future.
Winmar’s defense barrister, Dermot Dann KC, has pushed for a non-custodial sentence, acknowledging the gravity of the convictions while arguing that Winmar has made significant progress toward rehabilitation. Dann noted that while his client maintains his innocence, he recognizes the seriousness of the charges and accepts he has made serious mistakes in his life. “This is a man who’s had plenty of highlights but also plenty of low lights,” Dann told the court. “This proceeding is one of the real low lights.”
The defense outlined multiple mitigating factors, including lasting damage from Winmar’s 13-year professional football career. Dann explained that years of repeated head impacts have left Winmar’s body and brain ravaged, with ongoing medical investigations underway to confirm a diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated concussions. “As a legacy of those concussions he suffers confusion, poor memory, poor concentration – his mental health picture has not been good,” Dann said.
Dann added that Winmar had struggled with long-term alcohol addiction, and was in a deeply fragile state at the time of the attack. However, he told the court that Winmar has completed a year of sobriety, complied fully with all bail support program requirements, and is committed to continuing his recovery. He urged the magistrate to allow Winmar to pursue his rehabilitation outside of a prison cell.
Magistrate Trieu Huynh has delayed the sentencing to August 28 to allow time for careful consideration of the case. He has ordered a pre-sentence assessment for a potential community corrections order, but explicitly warned that he has not yet ruled out combining a community order with a prison term, or imposing a full custodial sentence.
Once one of the most respected figures in Australian football, Winmar’s legacy has already been dramatically reshaped following his conviction. The former player, who notched 251 AFL games across stints with St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs during a 13-season career, became an iconic symbol of anti-racism activism in 1993 when he lifted his jersey to point at his skin in a stand against racial abuse. A bronze statue honoring that moment was erected outside Perth’s Optus Stadium, but was removed shortly after his conviction. He has also been removed from the AFL Hall of Fame, stripping him of one of the sport’s highest honors.
When approached by media outside court Thursday, Winmar gave only a brief response, saying “yeah good” when asked how he was coping ahead of the sentencing ruling.