Tommy Raudonikis
Encyclopedia
Tommy Raudonikis OAM (born 13 April 1950 in Cowra, New South Wales
) is an Australian former rugby league
footballer and coach. 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.
n 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. Raudonikis 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 and in September 2004 he was named in the Western Suburbs Magpies team of the century.
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.
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 Cattledog call to which NSW players responded by breaking from the scrum with fists flying, resulting in two infamous all-in-brawls.
radio station owner John Singleton
. Through this friendship, he also participates as a commentator for the Continuous Call Team
with Ray Hadley
on 2GB
.
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
.)
Raudonikis made an appearance in the 2007 rugby league drama film, The Final Winter
.
Currently Raudonikis works as a part of the Channel 9 rugby league commentary team.
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. Also in 2008 the Western Suburbs Magpies celebrated their centenary by inducting six inaugural members into the club's Hall of Fame. These six included Raudonikis.
Cowra, New South Wales
Cowra is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia in the Cowra Shire. It is located on the Mid-Western Highway, 317 kilometres west of Sydney on the banks of the Lachlan River at an altitude of 310 metres above sea level. At the 2006 census Cowra had a population of 8,430...
) is an Australian former rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
footballer and coach. He played over twenty-nine Tests and World Cup
Rugby League World Cup
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation . It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954...
games as Australia representative
Australian national rugby league team
The Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...
halfback and captained his country in two Tests of the 1973 Kangarooo
Australian national rugby league team
The Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...
tour.
Early life and club playing career
Raudonikis is the son of a LithuaniaLithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n father and a Swiss mother who emigrated to Australia after WWII. He played 202 games for the Western Suburbs Magpies
Western Suburbs Magpies
The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...
between 1969 and 1979 before moving to the Newtown Jets
Newtown Jets
The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season...
for 37 games in three seasons between 1980 and 1982. Raudonikis played under two famous coaches, Roy Masters
Roy Masters (rugby league coach)
Roy Masters is an Australian sports journalist and former rugby league football coach, sports administrator and . He is currently a sports columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald. He was originally a school teacher with an interest in team psychology...
at Wests and Warren Ryan
Warren Ryan
Warren Ryan is former rugby league football coach and player from Sydney, Australia. He is considered as one of the most influential coaches in recent times. Ryan also played 1st Grade Rugby League for the St George Dragons and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks....
at Newtown. Some rate him the toughest player to have ever played in the halves and in September 2004 he was named in the Western Suburbs Magpies team of the century.
Representative playing career
He was first selected in an Australian squad in 1971 behind SouthsSouth Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital...
halfback Bob Grant
Bob Grant (rugby league)
Bob Grant is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1960s and 70s. A New South Wales interstate and Australian international representative halfback, he played most of his club football for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, with whom he won three premierships.-Club career:He featured in the...
and made his run on debut in 1972 against the Kiwis (the same year he won the Rothmans Medal
Rothmans Medal
The Rothmans Medal was the premier individual award in both the New South Wales Rugby League and Brisbane Rugby League competitions, and later in the Australian Rugby League, which was given to the player voted by referees as the best and fairest in those competitions for that year.The award was...
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
Greg Oliphant
Greg Oliphant is an Australian former rugby league footballer, a state and national representative half back who made one Kangaroo tour.-Biography:...
and Steve Mortimer
Steve Mortimer
Steve Mortimer OAM, , nicknamed Turvey after Turvey Park in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, where he hailed from, is an Australian former rugby league halfback. Mortimer played a Canterbury-Bankstown club record 272 first grade games between 1976–88. Mortimer's two younger brothers Peter and Chris...
.
He was the captain of the New South Wales State of Origin
New South Wales Rugby League team
The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...
team in the inaugural 1980 contest.
- 240+ senior game for Western Suburbs Magpies and Newtown Jets
- Won the 1972 Rothmans Medal
- NSW and Australian halfback throughout the 1970s
- First NSW State of Origin captain in 1980
- Coached NSW Blues in 1997 and 1998 Origin Series
- NSW Sporting Hall of Fame
- Kangaroos captain in 1973 for 2 tests
- 29 Test and World Cup caps
Awards
- Awarded the Medal of the Order of AustraliaOrder of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(OAM) in 1982 - Team of the Century with Wests Tigers and Western Suburbs
- Wests Magpies # 1 club man in 100 years and Magpie Immortal
- Voted Newtown’s Greatest Import in 100 years
- Men of Leagues’ Toughest 12 in last 50 years
- ARL’s greatest 100 in past 100 years
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 JetsIpswich Jets
The Ipswich Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Ipswich, Queensland.Their name comes from nearby RAAF Base Amberley, one of the largest airbases in Australia. The Jets compete in the Queensland Cup competition...
in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership. Returning to Sydney, he was coach of the Western Suburbs Magpies
Western Suburbs Magpies
The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...
from 1995 up until the formation of the Wests Tigers
Wests Tigers
The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's mid-western suburbs. They have competed in the National Rugby League since they were formed at the end of the 1999 season as a joint-venture club between the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs...
joint venture with the Balmain Tigers
Balmain Tigers
The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league football club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in the history of the premiership, with eleven titles...
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
New South Wales Rugby League team
The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...
in the 1997 and 1998 series. In those series he entered State of Origin
Rugby League State of Origin
State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...
folklore when he introduced the Cattledog call to which NSW players responded by breaking from the scrum with fists flying, resulting in two infamous all-in-brawls.
In the media
He is a long term friend of 2GB2GB
2GB is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia broadcasting on 873 kHz, AM. It is one of Australia's most popular talk-back radio stations, and is the number one station in Sydney.-History:The station commenced broadcasting in August 1926...
radio station owner John Singleton
John Singleton (Australian entrepreneur)
John Desmond Singleton AM is an Australian entrepreneur. He built his success and wealth in the advertising business in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s...
. Through this friendship, he also participates as a commentator for the Continuous Call Team
Continuous Call Team
The Continuous Call Team is an Australian radio sports program, covering the news and live games of the National Rugby League. It is produced and broadcast by 2GB Sydney, and is relayed to stations in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and Papua New Guinea.The team have...
with Ray Hadley
Ray Hadley
Raymond Morris Hadley OAM is an Australian talkback radio broadcaster. He presents 2GB Sydney's morning show, and leads the Continuous Call Team, a rugby league-based talkback radio panel program.-Early Life:...
on 2GB
2GB
2GB is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia broadcasting on 873 kHz, AM. It is one of Australia's most popular talk-back radio stations, and is the number one station in Sydney.-History:The station commenced broadcasting in August 1926...
.
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
Arthur Summons
Arthur Summons is a former Australian representative rugby union and rugby league player, a dual-code rugby international fly-half or five-eighth...
(the subject of the NRL trophy with Norm Provan
Norm Provan
Norm "Sticks" Provan is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. A giant of a man, he was a second-row forward with the St. George Dragons during their 11-year consecutive premiership-winning run from 1956 to 1966...
.)
Raudonikis made an appearance in the 2007 rugby league drama film, The Final Winter
The Final Winter
The Final Winter is an Australian drama film released in 2007. It was directed by Brian Andrews and Jane Forrest and produced by Anthony Coffee, and Michelle Russell, while independently produced it is being distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was written by Matthew Nable who also starred as the...
.
Currently Raudonikis works as a part of the Channel 9 rugby league commentary team.
In February 2008, Raudonikis was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
and ARL
Australian Rugby League
The Australian Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Australia. It is made up of state bodies, including the New South Wales Rugby League and the Queensland Rugby League...
to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. Also in 2008 the Western Suburbs Magpies celebrated their centenary by inducting six inaugural members into the club's Hall of Fame. These six included Raudonikis.
External links
- Tom Raudonikis OAM
- Tom Raudonikis' Website
- Tommy Raudonikis at stateoforigin.com.au
- Tom Raudonikis at eraofthebiff.com
- Tommy Raudonikis, Wests Rugby League Team and the Working Class of Campbelltown, New South Wales - article in Football Studies 1998 Vol 1