AFL removes Nicky Winmar from Australian Football Hall of Fame after assault conviction

The AFL has removed Nicky Winmar from the Australian Football Hall of Fame after the former St Kilda and Western Bulldogs player was in June found guilty of three assault charges involving violence against women.

Winmar, who retired from playing in 1999 after 251 AFL games, was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 after having been eligible since 2005 – a move widely lauded at the time given the Saints great’s feats on the field and the famous stand he took against racism.

The stripping of one of the most prestigious honours in Australian rules football comes after Optus Stadium in his home state of Western Australia took down a statue depicting him lifting his jersey and pointing at his skin in response to racist abuse during a game in 1993.

The decision to remove the statue sparked debate – Winmar is not the only Hall of Fame footballer to have committed violent acts.

Last week the AFL confirmed it was reviewing Winmar’s inclusion, but it did not respond when asked about the status of fellow Hall of Famer Wayne Carey, who pleaded guilty in 1996 to indecent assault and was placed on a good-behaviour bond without conviction.

Winmar is not the only player to be stripped of Hall of Fame status; former footballer Barry Cable was stripped of the honour after a civil trial found he repeatedly sexually abused a girl while at the height of his playing career. In April this year, the former Perth, East Perth and North Melbourne player was found not guilty in a criminal case of charges that he sexually abused girls in Perth in the 1960s.

Carey was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2024, the AFL blocked Carey’s elevation to “legend” status in the New South Wales Hall of Fame, citing concerns about his history during a league-wide campaign against gender-based violence against women.

New rules adopted in 2023 allow for the AFL commission to remove an inductee if they have been “charged with or found guilty of an indictable offence and/or if the inductee engages in conduct which the commission considers is prejudicial to the interests of the AFL or is conduct which brings the AFL, the inductee, or Australian football into disrepute”.

“The Australian Football Hall of Fame exists to recognise the highest achievements in our game and admission to it is one of the greatest honours Australian football can bestow,” commission chair Craig Drummond said.

“The commission has a responsibility to protect the integrity and reputation of that honour. Violence 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.

“The commission acknowledges Nicky Winmar’s significant contribution to Australian football and his place in our history. However, the recent findings against him render inappropriate his place in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.”