Born: Melbourne, Victoria
5 April, 1937
The son of one of Australia’s most legendary footballers, Haydn Bunton Jnr was just one year old when his family moved to Perth but he was to leave legacy in the sport that was to spread over four decades.
Bunton suffered polio as a youth, playing his first game of junior football in Adelaide wearing leg callipers and he recovered from a serious car accident before returning to WA as a courageous, indefatigable rover and an emerging coach. He had coached South Australia clubs, Norwood and North Adelaide, taking the former two grand finals after being appointed coach at the age of 20.
He lifted unfashionable Swan Districts from last in 1960, when the team won just two games, to their maiden WANFL premiership in 1961; he won the Sandover Medal as the League’s best player in 1962 and he completed a hat-trick of premierships (1961-63) at Swans, taking three different routes to the grand final.
His playing style was highlighted by raw courage and expectations durability, despite his relatively small frame and he captained WA to victory in the 1961 Australian Championships in Brisbane.
Bunton crossed to Subiaco as captain-coach in 1968, lifting the Lions from the bottom of the table into three successive finals series. He stood aside in 1972, the year prior to the club breaking a 49-year premiership drought.
He played 97 games with North Adelaide, 54 with Norwood, 89 with Swan Districts and 59 with Subiaco for a total of 299 games in the senior leagues. He played one game with East Launceston in Tasmania to round his total off at 300 games. He represented WA and SA in a total of eleven interstate games.
Bunton returned to Subiaco in 1984 as the non-playing coach and claimed premierships in 1986 and 1988. he coached a total of 728 senior games with a winning record of better than 50 percent.