A woman has come forward with serious accusations against AFL legend Nicky Winmar, claiming he subjected her to a frightening assault where he allegedly pulled her by the hair and slammed her head against a door.
These allegations surfaced during a hearing at Bendigo Magistrates Court, where Winmar is contesting four assault charges. The woman, whose identity remains protected, detailed the harrowing incident as part of the legal proceedings.
According to the police, the incident occurred on May 14, 2025, in Cohuna, a town in northern Victoria. The 60-year-old former St Kilda star is accused of launching an unexpected attack on the woman that evening.
In her testimony, the woman recounted how Winmar suddenly became enraged, describing him as yelling incoherently at her. “He was just ranting and screaming at me – it was completely nonsensical,” she testified. “There hadn’t been any prior argument. I was utterly shocked and had no idea what was happening.”
“Just complete ranting and screaming at me – none of it made sense,” she told the court.
“We hadn’t been arguing or anything like that. I couldn’t work out what was going on. I was in absolute shock.”
The woman alleged Winmar grabbed her arm and twisted it hard before pulling her by the ponytail and dragging her into another room.
She said Winmar then pushed her against a wall, before yelling and spitting in her face.
“He turned off the light and wouldn’t let me out,” the woman told the court.
“He physically overpowered me so I couldn’t get out. He knew I was scared.”
The woman told the court he eventually let go of her and she ran to grab her mobile phone but he took it off her.
He only passed the phone back after she said she wanted to call a friend instead of the police, the court was told.
The woman said she spoke to her friend before passing the phone back to Winmar and running from the room.
He allegedly chased after her and grabbed her head before bashing it repeatedly into a wooden door.
“I was getting dizzy, it was incredibly painful,” she told the court.
The woman said she managed to break free and lock herself into a room, where she called Triple Zero.
“I was petrified he was going to do more things to me,” the woman said in her evidence.
“I was actually fearful for my life.”
The Triple Zero call was played to the court alongside body-worn camera footage from a police officer who attended the scene.
A photo of the woman’s arm was also shown, depicting bruising above her right elbow.
Under questioning from Winmar’s barrister, Dermot Dann KC, the woman accepted she did not tell the Triple Zero call taker nor the first officer what exactly happened.
She did not disclose the allegations Winmar had dragged her or that he spat in her face.
“I didn’t do that deliberately,” the woman told the court.
“I didn’t want to relive it again because I had been sitting in that room absolutely broken by what had just happened.”
The contested hearing will continue tomorrow.
Winmar became the first Aboriginal footballer to play 200 games in the AFL, 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.
