Haydn Bunton Senior (1911-1955) was an Australian rules football player regarded by some observers as the game's greatest ever player. He remains the only player to have received both the Brownlow Medal — for the best and fairest player in the Victorian Football League (VFL) — and the Sandover Medal (the equivalent in the Western Australian Football League) on three separate occasions.

Bunton was born in Albury, New South Wales where his natural ability attracted the attention of all twelve VFL teams, and he was eventually recruited by VFL club Fitzroy in 1930. He played for the Lions in 119 games, kicking 209 goals, averaging over thirty kicks per match, winning five club Best and Fairest awards as well as Brownlow Medals in 1931, 1932 and 1935. He also won the Champion Of The Colony award in 1932. In 1938 he moved to Western Australia and played with and coached Subiaco.

During his career, Bunton was considered by fans of the sport as a player of integrity as he rarely engaged in rough play and his looks were reported to be compared by Richmond legend Jack Dyer to those of film star Rudolf Valentino. His ability to excite spectators and relieve them of the pressures of the Great Depression invites comparisons with cricket superstar Donald Bradman (in fact, Bunton and Bradman once played together in a New South Wales Country side).

In the 1930s, a young Aboriginal footballer named Douglas Nicholls was signed by Fitzroy. Bunton immediately befriended the diminutive yet skilful South Australian, a significant gesture in those days of the White Australia Policy and the stolen generation. In 1972, Nicholls was appointed Governor of South Australia.

Bunton died as a result of a car accident in 1955, but his son, Haydn Bunton Junior, went on to become an accomplished footballer in his own right. In 1996, Bunton was named in the AFL's Team of the Century and a Legend in the sport's Hall of Fame.

External links

• http://www.australianrules.com.au/2003stories/buntonstory.html
• http://www.footystamps.com/fl_haydn_bunton.htm