meeting that set in motion Bartlett's path towards playing for Richmond. He began his career with the under-17s side, where he won the goalkicking and the best and fairest in 1962. In 1963, he won the best and fairest in the under-19s, and Richmond made the under 19s final series. Bartlett, however, was injured seconds into the first final against Geelong, which resulted him being taken to the Prince Henry Hospital, where it was revealed that a cyst was embedded in his hip. It was while waiting for the ambulance to collect him in the MCG change rooms that he first met Jack Dyer. Dyer had appeared at the match, on the advice of Richmond under-19s coach Ray Jordon, and visited Bartlett in the rooms to tell him he will be okay. The following year for Bartlett (1964) involved rehabilitation, as he still experienced pain around his hip area. Records and Medal Bartlett was also the first player in elite Australian rules football to play 400 premiership games, with only six others achieving the feat as of 2022, four in the VFL/AFL (Hawthorn's Michael Tuck, North Melbourne's Brent Harvey, Essendon's Dustin Fletcher and Port Adelaide and Hawthorn's Shaun Burgoyne), one who played in the SANFL (Glenelg's Peter Carey), and one who played in both leagues (Port Adelaide and Carlton's Craig Bradley; Burgoyne also played 26 SANFL games for Port Adelaide prior to his AFL career). His 403 premiership games remained an elite Australian rules football record until broken by Carey in Round 7 of the 1988 SANFL season, and an elite Victorian football record until broken by Tuck in Round 22 of the 1990 AFL season. Bartlett also played 20 matches for Victoria in interstate football, and 12 pre-season night series matches (which are recognised as senior by the SANFL and WAFL but not the VFL/AFL). If these are included, Bartlett played a total of 435 career senior matches. The Kevin Bartlett Medal is awarded each season to the player who finishes fifth in the Richmond Football Club's best and fairest count, with places one to four being the Jack Dyer, Jack Titus, Maurie Fleming, and Fred Swift Medals respectively. Playing statistics |- |- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1965 |style="text-align:center;"| | 29 || 14 || 13 || 15 || 183 || 21 || 204 || 17 || || 0.9 || 1.1 || 13.1 || 1.5 || 14.6 ||