Haydn Austin Bunton (born 5 April 1937) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. The son of the legendary Haydn Bunton Sr., Bunton Jr. played for North Adelaide and Norwood in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as well as Swan Districts and Subiaco in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). Bunton was regarded as a tough and skilful player in both South Australia and Western Australia, but it was as a coach that he cemented a reputation alongside his father as one of Australian football's greatest identities. 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.

Born in Caulfield, Victoria, Bunton Jr. moved with his father first to Western Australia and then to South Australia. Bunton was hospitalised for two years from the age of three due to a fractured pelvis and Perthes disease in his hip. He wore leg braces and used crutches until he was aged ten.  Haydn Bunton junior made his debut for North Adelaide at the age of 17, and two years seasons later was named an All-Australian player. In 1955, Bunton senior was killed in a car crash, but the following year, the younger Bunton showed his class as a player by finishing runner-up for the Magarey Medal to Dave Boyd. The following year, Haydn "stood out" as a player due to a transfer dispute with North Adelaide, who would not clear him, but amazingly served as a non-playing coach of Norwood. 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. At the time Swan Districts were the Cinderella side of the WAFL, having never won more than seven games in a season since 1945, and were generally regarded with "pity or scorn". Swan Districts had lost their last sixteen games of 1960, but improved immediately under Bunton's coaching. They won 12 and drew two of twenty-one matches to finish second, but after a loss to raging hot premiership favourite East Perth in the second semi final they were not considered a serious threat. However, after overcoming Subiaco in the preliminary, Bunton developed an ingenious tactic to counter Royals' champion Polly Farmer by using both Keith Slater and Fred Castledine in the ruck contests. Though this ploy was technically illegal, it was accepted by the umpires, and Swan Districts won by 24 points for their first WAFL premiership. In the process of lifting Swan Districts from cellar-dwellers to premiers, Bunton developed a use of handball that was far ahead of its time and also discouraged the use of the erratic drop kick.  The following year Bunton won the Sandover Medal for the league's "fairest and best", completing a rare father-and-son achievement. Swan Districts took their first minor premiership and won both the second semi and grand finals against East Fremantle. Despite finishing fourth after the home-and-away rounds, Swan Districts managed to win three finals and a hat-trick of premierships in 1963; however, 1964 saw the team collapse to sixth of eight clubs with only nine wins.  Bunton returned to Norwood as playing coach from 1965 until 1967, bringing his total number of games for Norwood to 97. In his first season the club played off in the finals, but they slowly declined in 1966 and 1967 finishing seventh of ten teams.

Why did he start playing for North Adelaide?