After 1967, Bunton accepted another major challenge when he accepted an appointment as playing coach of
Subiaco, for whom his father had won three Sandover Medals, but which had been almost continuously a cellar-dweller for thirty years. Between
1937 and 1967, Subiaco had played in only four senior finals series and overall managed just 186 wins and four draws from 577 senior games for a success rate of 32.58 per cent.
Subiaco, 1968 to 1972 In 1967, Subiaco had won only three of 21 games to be four games clear on the bottom, but, aided by an amazing season from full forward Austin Robertson junior, they won twelve games in 1968 to finish fourth, but did not beat top three teams
Perth,
East Perth and
West Perth during perhaps the most uneven season in any of the VFL/AFL, SANFL or WANFL. Bunton played for two more seasons during which Subiaco again lost the first semi-final (though it was their first consecutive seasons in the finals since 1935 and 1936), but stayed on as non-playing coach during 1971 and 1972. During these two seasons, Subiaco disappointed, winning only eighteen of forty-two games and finishing fifth and sixth in an eight-team competition. 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. During this time, he played a leading role in completely banishing the drop kick from football.
South Adelaide, 1975 to 1982 After a two-year sabbatical, Bunton returned to coach
South Adelaide in 1975. As with Subiaco, the Panthers had struggled severely ever since World War II, playing in the finals only during the three years of
Neil Kerley's tenure as captain-coach. Unlike Subiaco, South Adelaide's improvement under Bunton's patented methods of fast, skilful football was gradual, but the Panthers played in the major round for the first time in eleven years in 1977 and two years later played in only their second grand final since the war and last to date as of 2025. However, on a muddy ground and extremely windy if dry day Port's experience and luck with the toss told: the Magpies' five goals with the breeze was more than South could manage for an afternoon when not one goal was kicked against the wind and by the last quarter South had little left in them, losing by the score of 3.14 (32) to 9.9 (63). The Panthers did, however, win the NFL night series with VFA and WAFL clubs plus representative teams from "developing" football states in both 1978 and 1979. after
Kevin Higgins and
Steven Trigg had guided them to only seven wins from 64 games between 1990 and 1992. Sturt had actually possessed interest in Bunton during the early 1980s when they were seeking a replacement for veteran coach
Jack Oatey, but lost interest when a decision had to be made at the end of 1982. Bunton started very badly, with the Double Blues having lost as many as twenty consecutive games before their first win in July. However, they managed to win four of their last eight games but narrowly failed on percentage to avoid a fifth successive wooden spoon. 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. 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. Bunton's stint at Sturt is generally regarded as his only failure as a coach, though he admitted he enjoyed it, that the Sturt district was "not as productive as it used to be" and that SANFL redistricting had hurt the club. ==Notes==