Former St Kilda AFL footballer Nicky Winmar will face a pre-sentence hearing after being found guilty of assault. Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/The GuardianView image in fullscreenFormer St Kilda AFL footballer Nicky Winmar will face a pre-sentence hearing after being found guilty of assault. Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/The GuardianFormer AFL player Nicky Winmar found guilty of assaulting woman in northern VictoriaJudge finds woman was truthful after the former St Kilda star accused her of lying about attack
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Former AFL player Nicky Winmar has been found guilty of dragging a woman by the hair and hitting her head against a door.
Winmar, 60, argued the woman lied about the attack but Bendigo magistrate Trieu Huynh on Friday found she was being truthful and convicted him of three charges.
The woman, who cannot be identified, alleged Winmar attacked her at Cohuna in northern Victoria on 14 May 2025.
She claimed Winmar became unexpectedly angry before he grabbed her arm, twisted it and then dragged her by the hair.
The woman also accused Winmar of pushing her against a wall, spitting and yelling in her face, and then bashing her head repeatedly into a wooden door.
Winmar admitted he slapped the woman’s arm above the elbow but denied throwing any punches or making her tumble.
He claimed she had punched him five or six times to the face area.
Huynh found the woman was a credible and truthful witness who was honest in her evidence about the attack.
The magistrate convicted Winmar of two charges of common law assault and one count of unlawful assault.
The charges related to the allegations that Winmar grabbed the woman by the arm, dragged her by the hair and hit her head against a door.
Winmar was acquitted on the fourth charge of intentionally causing injury, with Huynh finding the woman’s “substantial pain” fell short of the sort of injury required for the charge.
Winmar, who appeared in the Bendigo court in person, dropped his head into his hands after the magistrate handed down his decision.
He will face a pre-sentence hearing at a later date.
Winmar, renowned as an AFL great, became the first Aboriginal footballer to play 200 games, finishing his career with 230 games at St Kilda and 21 for the Western Bulldogs.
He fought back against racism in his career, including standing in front of an abusive Collingwood crowd in 1993, lifting his jumper and proudly pointing at his skin.
Winmar is also co-leading a landmark racism class action against the AFL in the Victorian supreme court.
