DOB: 29 January 1915
Died: 20 April 2008
Debut: Round 1, 1935 against Essendon at MCG
Last Game: Round 1, 1942 against Essendon at Windy Hill
From: Brighton Vale/Brighton Technical School/Camberwell
Number: 23 (1935-1942)
Honours:
Premiership Player - 1939, 1940, 1941
Best First Year Player - 1935
150 Heroes selection
Life Member - 1980
Games: 125
Goals: 61
Career Statistics
| Wins | Draws | Losses | Winning % |
| 88 | 1 | 36 | 70.40 |
Originally from country Victoria, Wartman played for VFA side Camberwell from 1932 before joining Melbourne aged 20 in 1935. The tall, pacy Wartman played 18 games in his first season, showing versatility by starting at half-forward, then playing half-back, and wing at times during his rookie season. Wartman was voted Best First Year Player, followed up with 20 games in a much improved 1936 Melbourne side.
In 1937 Wartman played the first eight matches of the season before he was outed by a thigh injury. He came back after three weeks and was injured again, then late in the year reaggravated the injury while polishing his shoes. The next year he proved his durability by playing every match, but Melbourne disappointed by missing out on the top four. The Redlegs bounced back in 1939, and with Wartman missing just two games and playing on a wing in the Grand Final they won the first title of a glory era.
He stood on the wing again in the 1940 triumph - though a crunching bump by Jack Dyer put him out of the match at quarter time - before moving to the half-forward flank for the 1941 Grand Final.
Retiring after playing in the first game of 1942, Wartman stayed involved with the club. He trained with the club again in the 1945 pre-season but did not play another game.
Wartman worked as a jeweller and donated 20 pounds to the supporters' collection which paid 200p to the 1948 premiership side.
Having been a champion runner during his career, winning the Castlemaine Gift in 1937, he was also a talented golfer and formed part of the Australian foursomes championship winning team in 1955.
| Year | Games | Goals | Brownlow |
| 1935 | 18 | 18 | 5 |
| 1936 | 20 | 7 | 3 |
| 1937 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| 1938 | 18 | 3 | 1 |
| 1939 | 18 | 7 | 1 |
| 1940 | 21 | 7 | 3 |
| 1941 | 20 | 15 | 0 |
| 1942 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Lists
VFA
Notes
1933 clearance reports show him going from Camberwell to Whorouly. May have played there in 1934.
Media
Sun - 20/05/1935, 02/08/1935
Argus - 30/04/1935, 16/03/1937, 11/04/1945, 17/08/1955
Sporting Globe - 11/08/1937
Age - 12/10/1948
Links
Australian Football profile
Boyles Football Photos
Demonwiki image gallery
VFA Project profile
Wikipedia profile