Tommy Raudonikis
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Tom Raudonikis | |
| Date of birth | 1950 | |
| Place of birth | Bathurst, New South Wales, | |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (170 cm)[1] | |
| Weight | 11 st 7 lb (73 kg)[1] | |
| Nickname(s) | Tom Terrific | |
| Club information | ||
| Position(s) | Half-back | |
| Current club | Retired | |
| Senior clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (points) |
| 1969 1969–1979 1980–1982 1983 |
Wagga Kangaroos Western Suburbs Newtown Jets Brisbane Brothers |
202 (90) 37 (12) |
| Representative teams | ||
| 1971–1980 1971–1980 |
 New South Wales Australia |
24 (33) 20 (6) |
| Professional clubs coached | ||
| 1983 1995–1999 |
Brisbane Brothers Brisbane Norths Ipswich Jets Western Suburbs |
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| Representative teams coached | ||
| 1997–1998 | New South Wales Blues |
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* Professional club appearances and points |
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Tommy Raudonikis (born 1950 in Bathurst, New South Wales) is an Australian rugby league identity. He played over twenty-nine Tests and World Cup games as Australia representative halfback and captained his country in two Tests of the 1973 Kangarooo tour.
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[edit] Early life and club playing career
Raudonikis is the son of a Lithuanian father and a Swiss mother who emigrated to Australia after WWII. He played 202 games for the Western Suburbs Magpies between 1969 and 1979 before moving to the Newtown Jets for 37 games in three seasons between 1980 and 1982. He played under two famous coaches, Roy Masters at Wests and Warren Ryan at Newtown. Some rate him the toughest player to have ever played in the halves.
[edit] Representative playing career
He was first selected in an Australian squad in 1971 behind Souths halfback Bob Grant and made his run on debut in 1972 against the Kiwis (the same year he won the Rothmans Medal for best club player for the season). He was the regular Test halfback for the next six years. He made Test appearances up until 1980 by which time he was being challenged by Greg Oliphant and Steve Mortimer.
He was the captain of the New South Wales State of Origin team in the inaugural 1980 contest.
[edit] Coaching career
Raudonikis' final playing year was in a captain coach role at Brisbane Brothers in 1983. He later coached Brisbane Norths and the Ipswich Jets in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership. Returning to Sydney, he was coach of the Western Suburbs Magpies from 1995 up until the formation of the Wests Tigers joint venture with the Balmain Tigers at the end of 1999. He had some initial coaching success making the finals in 1996, but Wests were ultimately unable to build on this and only won six games in their final two seasons.
Raudonikis coached the Blues in the 1997 and 1998 series. In those series he entered State of Origin folklore when he introduced the "cattle dog" call to which NSW players responded by breaking from the scrum with fists flying, resulting in two infamous all-in-brawls.
[edit] In the media
He is a long term friend of 2GB radio station owner John Singleton. Through this friendship, he also participates as a commentator for the Continuous Call Team with Ray Hadley, as heard on 2GB and network stations across Australia and streaming on the internet.
His hospitalisation in August 2006, for a heart bypass operation, made Australian sports news and drew messages of support from a spectrum of famous former players including Wests icons Arthur Summons (the subject of the NRL trophy with Norm Provan.) He is known to have been a lifelong heavy smoker and drinker. He quit smoking over eight years ago and consumes only light alcoholic beverages.
Currently Raudonikis works as a part of the Channel 9 rugby league commentary team.
The general respect for him can be summed up in former coach Roy Masters' testimony to him. [1].
In February 2008, Raudonikis was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908-2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.[2][3]
[edit] Playing career
Australia 1971-75 & 1977-80: 20 Tests - 2t (6pts)
New South Wales rugby league team 1971-80: 24 games - 11t (33pts)
Wests 1969-79: 204 games - 29t (87pts)
Newtown 1980-82: 37 games - 4t (12pts).
[edit] External links
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b "World Series" . Rugby League Week (1975–1976): pg 85. Rushcutters Bay, NSW: Rugby League Week Pty Ltd.
- ^ Peter Cassidy. "Controversy reigns as NRL releases top 100 players", Macquarie National News, 2008-02-23. Retrieved on 2008-02-23.
- ^ Centenary of Rugby League - The Players. NRL & ARL (2008-02-23). Retrieved on 2008-02-23.
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| Preceded by Wayne Ellis (caretaker) 1994 following sacking of Warren Ryan |
Coach Western Suburbs Magpies 1995-1999 |
Succeeded by team formed joint venture with Balmain Tigers |
| Preceded by Phil Gould 1992-1996 |
Coach New South Wales State of Origin 1997-1998 |
Succeeded by Wayne Pearce 1999-2001 |
