Russel Gartner

Russel Gartner is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1970s and 1980s. An international representative three-quarter, He played for Manly, Balmain and Easts in the NSWRFL premiership.

Gartner came from a family with a strong rugby league background with his father Jim and uncle Clive playing for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, while his nephew Daniel Gartner would later play for Manly-Warringah and represent Australia.

A fast and tall Centre or Winger, Russel Gartner started playing first grade in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership in 1975 with the Manly-Warringah club. The following year he won his first premiership when he was part of the Sea Eagles' team that defeated Parramatta in the Grand Final. In 1977 Gartner was the League's top try-scorer with 17, three more than any other player in the premiership (North Sydney's Barry Wood and Gartner's former centre partner at Manly Bob Fulton who had joined Eastern Suburbs following Manly's 1976 premiership).

During the 1977 season, Gartner played two games for Australia in the 1977 World Cup. After making his debut for Australia from the bench in a 21-9 win France at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 11 June, Gartner was selected for the World Cup Final two weeks later against a strong Great Britain side, again at the Cricket Ground. There he scored a spectacular 65-metre solo try which was a catalyst to Australia's eventual victory. Surprisingly his two World Cup games in 1977 would prove to be Gartner's only appearances in the green and gold. Gartner is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No.501.