Nicky Winmar, a renowned AFL legend, intends to contest allegations of assault and intentional choking involving a woman.
Charged under his legal name, Neil Winmar, he faces accusations of two counts of assault and the intentional act of choking, “strangling or suffocating” a woman, following incidents that are reported to have occurred in Melbourne on July 18, 2025.
The prosecution has expressed their intention to consolidate these charges with other allegations that Winmar is confronting in Kerang.
In another alleged incident, Winmar is accused of twisting a woman’s arm and dragging her by the hair in Cohuna, which is located northwest of Echuca, on May 14, 2025.
The charge sheets, which have been partially redacted, do not clarify whether the allegations pertain to a single victim or multiple victims across these separate incidents.
It’s unclear from the redacted charge sheets whether there is one alleged victim or multiple alleged victims across the two incidents.
Winmar’s barrister Dermot Dann KC today told the court prosecutors were no longer seeking to have the two cases heard together.
Instead, the two sets of charges will be dealt with separately in Melbourne and Kerang.
Dann said the Melbourne charges could not be resolved and Winmar was seeking to fight the “serious” allegations in a contested hearing.
The barrister indicated the facts of the case were disputed.
Magistrate Kieran Gilligan adjourned the case to a one-day hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court on August 11.
Winmar, who did not speak during the brief hearing, had his bail extended to that date.
He is separately due to face Kerang Magistrates Court on January 29 over the Cohuna offending.
Winmar became the first Aboriginal footballer to play 200 games in the league, finishing his career with 230 games at St Kilda and 21 for the Western Bulldogs.
He fought back against a number of acts of racism throughout his career, including famously standing in front of a Collingwood crowd abusing him in 1993, lifting his jumper and proudly pointing at his skin.
Winmar is co-leading a landmark racism class action against the AFL in the Victorian Supreme Court.
