Once a dominant AFL star with a lasting legacy on the field, former St Kilda player Nicky Winmar has been stripped of his honours in a dramatic fall from grace.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old, who played 251 games over a 13-season career, was sentenced to a six month jail term this week over a violent alcohol-fuelled assault on a woman last May. <\/p>\n
Winmar, who maintains his innocence, remains on bail pending an appeal against both his conviction and sentence. <\/p>\n
Following a hearing in which he vigorously defended the charges in July, Winmar was found guilty of three assault charges stemming from an incident at a motel in northern Victoria. <\/p>\n
The woman, who cannot be named, described being afraid for her life and said she has now \u201clost faith and trust in everybody\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a shadow of the person I once was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The court was told Winmar had been drinking when he began screaming and attacking the woman \u201cout of nowhere\u201d. <\/p>\n
He was found to have twisted the woman\u2019s arm, dragged her by the hair and smashed her head into a door four times in the violent outburst.<\/p>\n
The woman said she managed to lock herself in a motel room and call triple-0, waiting an hour for police to arrive while cowering under a blanket with Winmar circling outside. <\/p>\n
Following the verdict, Winmar\u2019s actions were condemned by the AFL, with the sport\u2019s governing body, the AFL Commission, removing him from the game\u2019s Hall of Fame. <\/p>\n
AFL Commission chairman Craig Drummond said Winmar\u2019s place was \u201cinappropriate\u201d following the conviction. <\/p>\n
\u201cViolence against women has no place. Not in our community, not in our game, and not in the values the Australian Football Hall of Fame seeks to uphold,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
St Kilda, where Winmar played much of his career, also moved to suspend the former two times best and fairest award winner from the club\u2019s Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
The WA Football Hall of Fame has placed his status under review.<\/p>\n
A bronze monument outside Perth\u2019s Optus Stadium was also quickly removed, with WA Premier Roger Cook saying it was \u201cimportant we send a strong message to the community\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing Nicky Winmar\u2019s conviction, I\u2019m of the firm view that it is no longer appropriate for that statue to be displayed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The monument, installed in 2019, captured the moment Winmar lifted his guernsey and pointed to his skin after being subjected to racial abuse from Collingwood fans in a 1993 game.<\/p>\n
His actions ignited a national discussion on racism in sports and were credited with leading to the AFL creating anti-vilification policies. <\/p>\n
During a pre-sentence hearing in early August, Winmar\u2019s barrister Dermot Dann KC said the awards and recognition \u201cmeant a lot\u201d to Winmar, who maintains he is innocent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can erase his statue and they can erase his names from their Hall of Fames,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they\u2019ll never be able to erase \u2026 in the hearts of minds of the many, many people who care about racism and intolerance and injustice, is the memory of his courageous stand that day in the face of vitriol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winmar\u2019s \u201ciconic\u201d actions were referenced in magistrate Trieu Huynh, who said he had risen from a challenging childhood to \u201cscale the heights of the sporting world\u201d.<\/p>\n
His stand demonstrated his pride in his Aboriginal heritage and that racism had no place in society, the magistrate said, accepting that Winmar had suffered \u201cextra-curial\u201d punishment when his name was stripped from the Hall of Fame and statue removed. <\/p>\n
Mr Dann told the court Winmar had \u201cplenty of highlights\u201d in his life but he\u2019d also faced significant challenges, including a long-term battle with problematic alcohol consumption. <\/p>\n
He was drinking daily at the time of the incident, the court was told, but had since abstained and was one year sober. <\/p>\n
Around the time of the offending, Mr Dann said Winmar was \u201cbasically homeless\u201d and a \u201creally broken man\u201d but, in the year since, he\u2019d made significant efforts to get his life back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI accept you have made significant efforts at rehabilitation and your prospects do appear good,\u201d the magistrate said. <\/p>\n
The court was told Winmar had priors for injuring a taxi driver following an AFL game in 2019, where he punched the driver in the head six times and knocked him to the ground, and an assault on a woman on Christmas Day in 1999.<\/p>\n
Mr Huynh said it was clear Winmar had a \u201cdetrimental relationship with alcohol that had plagued you over many years\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems whenever you\u2019ve been involved in criminal infractions, alcohol has been a common theme,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Mr Dann said Winmar had suffered plenty of concussions in his lengthy career, with investigations now underway to explore the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) \u2013 a brain disease linked to repeated head knocks.<\/p>\n
He suffers from headaches, confusion, an inability to concentrate, poor memory and mental health issues. <\/p>\n
\u201cPhysically, the legacy of football is that his body is ravaged,\u201d Mr Dann said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the concern, yes, that he does have an injury, a brain injury, associated with those concussions, it\u2019s under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Dann said his client had also been subjected to abuse in public following the verdict.<\/p>\n
The former footballer is expected to appeal his sentence and conviction in the Victorian County Court. <\/p>\n
Winmar will also contest allegations he assaulted and choked, strangled or suffocated a woman in July last year at a second hearing in December. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once a dominant AFL star with a lasting legacy on the field, former St Kilda player Nicky 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