Former AFL great stripped of Hall of Fame status

Joanna Guelas |

The AFL says it would be inappropriate for Nicky Winmar to remain in its Hall of Fame.
The AFL says it would be inappropriate for Nicky Winmar to remain in its Hall of Fame.

Former St Kilda player Nicky Winmar has been removed from the Australian Football Hall of Fame after being found guilty of assaulting a woman.

The Saints have also suspended Winmar from the club’s Hall of Fame following the 60-year-old’s conviction on three charges of unlawful and common assault in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court.

The charges related to the allegations Winmar grabbed a woman by the arm, dragged her by the hair and hit her head against a door.

A statue of Winmar’s stand against racism – which depicts the iconic 1993 moment where the St Kilda player lifted his jumper and pointed at his skin – at Perth’s Optus Stadium was torn down under a directive from the West Australian government.

Winmar was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 after a 251-game AFL career with the Saints and Western Bulldogs.

Recruited by St Kilda from South Fremantle, he was the first Indigenous footballer to play 200 games in the AFL.

AAP