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.
They won twelve 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.
[6] 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.
However, when Subiaco won its first premiership since 1924 under new coach Ross Smith, it was generally acknowledged that Bunton had played a critical role in raising the team from last to first over the six seasons between 1967 and 1973.
In 1984, Bunton junior returned to his former haunt of Subiaco, who as a result of the loss of such players as Mike Fitzpatrick had endured another bleak era over the previous nine seasons.
A thrashing by East Perth in the first week of the 1992 WAFL finals saw Bunton resign at the end of the season after having coached Subiaco's most successful era since before World War II.
At the age of fifty-six, Bunton was appointed by a Sturt club looking for an experienced coach[13] after Kevin Higgins and Steven Trigg had guided them to only seven wins from 64 games between 1990 and 1992.
In 1994, things started promisingly with two wins and a near miss against reigning premiers the Eagles before Sturt fell back to its old ways and won only two of its last seventeen games for a sixth wooden spoon on end.
[13] Bunton resigned at the end of 1994 to be replaced by Phil Carman, who resurrected the club after on paper the worst modern season in a major Australian rules league the following year.