Haydn Bunton, Sr.

Haydn Bunton, Sr.
Personal information
Full name	Haydn William Bunton
Date of birth	(1911-07-05)5 July 1911
Place of birth	Albury, New South Wales
Date of death	5 September 1955(1955-09-05) (aged 44)
Place of death	Adelaide, South Australia
Original team	Albury
Height/Weight	179 cm / 73 kg
Position(s)	Rover
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1931–1937, 1942 1938–1941 1945	Fitzroy Subiaco Port Adelaide	119 (207) 72 (190) 17 (30)
Coaching career3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1936 1947–1948	Fitzroy North Adelaide (SANFL)	18 (2–16–0) 35 (13–21–0)
1 Playing statistics correct to end of 1945 season. 3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1948.
Career highlights
Brownlow Medal 1931, 1932, 1935 Sandover Medal 1938, 1939, 1941 Fitzroy captain 1932, 1936–1937 Fitzroy best and fairest 1934, 1935 Fitzroy leading goalkicker 1936, 1937 AFL Hall of Fame legend 1996 AFL Team of the Century (forward pocket) Fitzroy Team of the Century (rover) Subiaco Team of the Century (ruck-rover) New South Wales Team of the Century (rover)

Haydn William Bunton (5 July 1911 – 5 September 1955) was an Australian rules footballer who represented Fitzroy in the Victorian Football League (VFL), Subiaco in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), and Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) during the 1930s and 1940s.

Bunton is the only footballer to have won the Brownlow Medal and the Sandover Medal three times each. He is one of only four footballers to have won the Brownlow three times (the others being Ian Stewart, Dick Reynolds and Bob Skilton), and one of only five footballers to have won the Sandover at least three times (the others being Barry Cable, Graham Farmer, Merv McIntosh and Bill Walker, who won it four times). Bunton is also the only player to have averaged one Brownlow vote per game over his career.^[2]

Like cricketer Don Bradman and the racehorse Phar Lap, Bunton was a sporting champion who made life bearable for the Australian public during the dark days of the Great Depression. A brilliant runner and ball-winner, he was regarded by some historians and observers of Australian rules as its greatest-ever player.^[3]

Playing career

The son of Victorians Ernest Edward Bunton, a brickmaker, and Matilda Caroline, née Luhrs, Bunton was born and raised in Albury, New South Wales.^[4] He originally played for Albury Football Club in the Ovens & Murray Football Association. His natural Australian football ability attracted the attention of all twelve VFL clubs. Fitzroy won the race to secure his services, but only after it was revealed that they had paid him £222 to join, which was illegal under VFL rules. He was subsequently unable to play during the 1930 VFL season.^[5] His initial, legal match payments were the modest sum of £2 per week.

Bunton played district cricket for Fitzroy during the 1930-31 season, and scored 104 against Prahran. He resisted offers from clubs in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) to play for them during the 1930 season, one club even offering him a brand-new car.^[6]

Bunton played as a rover/follower and achieved instant success, winning Brownlow Medals in his first two seasons (1931 and 1932) in the VFL. He worked in a department store during the day, and practised baulking by weaving his way through crowds of shoppers. One of his opponents, Dick Reynolds, spied on him during this activity in order to learn how to defeat his technique.^[7]

During his career at Fitzroy, Bunton averaged over thirty kicks per match and won five club best-and-fairest awards, in addition to his Brownlows. He was appointed captain of Fitzroy in 1932 and was named Champion of the Colony that same year. He was runner-up for the Brownlow Medal in 1934, then won the award for a third time in 1935. While playing, Bunton also spent the 1936 VFL season as senior coach at Fitzroy, but could only manage two wins. He was also Fitzroy's leading goalkicker in 1936 and 1937.

In 1938, Bunton moved to Western Australia, taking the position of captain-coach of Subiaco. He won the Sandover Medal three times, in 1938, 1939 and 1941. Just as at Fitzroy, Bunton did not win a grand final during his senior career. Altogether, Bunton had won six league best and fairest awards in only eleven seasons between the two states in which he had played. Bunton returned to Fitzroy for a few games in 1942, and after being discharged from army service at the end of World War II he played one season with SANFL club Port Adelaide.

Life Outside Football

Bunton enlisted in the Australian Army in 1943 and rose to the rank of corporal.

He spent the 1946 season as an SANFL field umpire, before he was appointed coach at North Adelaide. Bunton spent the 1947 and 1948 seasons with North, but as coach was unable to take the club to the finals.

Death and Tributes

This photograph of Bunton, with a "ball beneath his arm, earth scarcely in view", is the basis of a statue outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground. "He looks like Mercury, the Roman messenger of the gods."^[1]

On Thursday 1 September 1955, Bunton was critically injured when his car crashed into three gum trees eleven miles north of Gawler, South Australia. He was alone in the car, and was treated at the scene for severe head injuries, a punctured lung, a fractured collarbone, fractured ribs and shock.^[8] On the Saturday morning he rallied slightly to encourage his son Haydn Jr. in an important match for North Adelaide that day. Bunton was declared dead on the night of Monday 5 September at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.^[8] He was buried at North Road Cemetery in Nailsworth, South Australia.^[4]

In 1996, Bunton was named at left forward pocket in the AFL Team of the Century, and was made an inaugural legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Reputation

During his playing career, Bunton was considered by fans of the sport as a player of integrity, who rarely if ever engaged in unduly rough play.^[9] His fame was enhanced by him having his own radio show on 3DB, and a Melbourne newspaper column, when he played with Fitzroy.^[9] He later had radio programs in Perth and Adelaide. He was regarded as a sex symbol in the 1930s, and his looks were compared to those of film star Rudolf Valentino.^[9]

Bunton once played with Don Bradman in a New South Wales country cricket team, and in the early 1930s, Bunton was regarded as a possible Test cricketer.^[2]

In 2003, historian and teacher Ken Mansell wrote The Ballad of Haydn Bunton a song that highlighted the great man's achievements.^[3]

Family

Bunton's brother, Cleaver Bunton, was a long-serving mayor of Albury and represented New South Wales in the Senate. He was also president of the Ovens & Murray Football Association from 1930–69. He received the OBE in 1954.

Bunton married Lylia Frances Austin at Scots' Church on 22 February 1936. In July 1945, Mrs. Bunton sued for divorce on the grounds of her husband's misconduct with a certain Doreen May Scott, a member of the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS).^[10] She died suddenly at home on 25 December 1954 at the age of 42.^[11] Bunton had two sons: Haydn Bunton, Jr., who would become a talented footballer in his own right, and David.^{[2] [11]}

References

External links

• Haydn Bunton, Sr.'s statistics from AFL Tables
• Information about Haydn Bunton at Trove
• AFL Hall of Fame - Legends
• Sport Australia Hall of Fame Member Profile
• Haydn Bunton's WW2 Service Record
• Profile at Australian Football
• The Ballad of Haydn Bunton (Song and Article) - by Original Author and Artist
• The Ballad of Haydn Bunton on YouTube
• Hall of Fame Legend: Haydn Bunton on YouTube