Haydn Bunton, Jr.

Haydn Bunton, Jr.
Personal information
Full name	Haydn Austin Bunton
Date of birth	5 April 1937 (1937-04-05)
Place of birth	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Position(s)	Rover, forward pocket
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1954–56 1958–67 1959 1961–64 1968–70	North Adelaide Norwood Launceston Swan Districts Subiaco	54 (unknown) 97 (unknown) unknown 89 (112) 59 (unknown)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
1961–64 unknown	Western Australia South Australia	11 (9) 11 (unknown)
Coaching career3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1957 1959 1971–72 1975–82 1984–92 1993–94	Norwood Launceston Subiaco South Adelaide Subiaco Sturt
1 Playing statistics to end of 1970 season .
Career highlights
All-Australian team 1956 North Adelaide best and fairest 1956 2nd Magarey Medal 1956 Swan Districts captain 1961–63 Swan Districts premiership side 1961, 1962, 1963 Swan Districts premiership coach 1961, 1962, 1963 Sandover Medal 1962 Subiaco premiership coach 1986, 1988 Australian Football Hall of Fame (1996) South Australian Football Hall of Fame (2002) WAIS Hall of Champions (2003) West Australian Football Hall of Fame (2004)

Haydn Austin Bunton, Jr. (born 5 April 1937) is a former Australian rules football player and coach. The son of Haydn Bunton, Sr., who won three Brownlow and three Sandover Medals, Bunton, Jr., began his career at North Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), making his debut in 1954 at the age of 17.

Bunton was regarded as a tough and skilful player and was a very successful coach in both the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL) and South Australian National Football League (SANFL). (His father, Haydn Bunton, Sr., won three Brownlow Medals in the VFL and three Sandover Medals in the WANFL.)

The younger Bunton was inducted into the coaches section of the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, as well as the Western Australian Institute of Sport Hall of Champions in 2003 and was made an inaugural member of the WA Football Hall of Fame in 2004 and the SA Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Playing career

Bunton was named an All-Australian player at the age of 19, in 1956, while at North Adelaide in the SANFL, where he played 54 games between 1954 and 1956. In 1956, he finished runner-up for the Magarey Medal (to Dave Boyd). In 1957, he was a non-playing coach of Norwood, having "stood out" as a player for the year due to a transfer dispute with North Adelaide, who would not clear him. From 1958 to 1960, he played for Norwood, in spite of a serious knee injury sustained in a car accident in Tasmania in 1959.

Bunton had another strong year in 1961, when he was recruited by Swan Districts in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) as captain-coach. He captained Western Australia to a (then) rare win in the Australian championships and oversaw Swan Districts' first ever premiership, the first of three consecutive premierships for the club. The following year Bunton won the Sandover Medal for the league's "fairest and best", completing a rare father and son achievement.

From 1965 to 1967, Bunton returned to Norwood, bringing his total number of games for the club to 97.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Bunton coached Subiaco (WANFL) from 1968 to 1972; South Adelaide (SANFL) from 1975–1982; returned to Subiaco in 1984–89, including WAFL premierships in 1986 and 1988; and Sturt (SANFL) in 1992–1994.