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 a legacy in the sport that was to spread over four decades.

Bunton suffered from Perthes disease as a youth, playing his first game of junior football in Adelaide wearing leg callipers. In 1957, aged just 19, he was appointed coach of Norwood and took them to a grand final in 1958. After surviving and recovering from a serious car accident in 1959 he returned to WA in 1961as a courageous, indefatigable rover and an emerging coach.

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.

Despite his relatively small frame, his playing style was highlighted by raw courage and exceptional durability, 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 11 interstate games.

Bunton returned to Subiaco in 1984 as the non-playing coach and claimed premierships in 1986 and 1988. In total, he coached 728 senior games with a winning record of better than 50 percent.