23 Facts About Tommy Raudonikis

Thomas Walter Raudonikis was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach.

Tommy Raudonikis played 40 International games and World Cup games as Australia representative halfback and captained his country in two matches of the 1973 Kangaroo tour.

Tommy Raudonikis was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, the son of a Lithuanian immigrant father and a Swiss immigrant mother.

Tommy Raudonikis joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an engineering apprentice in 1967 and spent three years under training at RAAF Base Wagga.

Tommy Raudonikis played 201 games for the Western Suburbs Magpies between 1969 and 1979.

Tommy Raudonikis quickly established himself of one of the Leagues top players when in 1972 he won the Rothmans Medal, as judged by the NSWRL referees as the best and fairest player in the competition.

Tommy Raudonikis epitomised the "Fibros versus Silvertails" rivalry with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles stoked by Western Suburbs coach Roy Masters.

Tommy Raudonikis captained the Jets to the 1981 NSWRL Grand Final against Parramatta.

Tommy Raudonikis scored a try early in the second half of the match but Newtown would eventually be defeated 20 points to 11.

Tommy Raudonikis moved to Queensland in 1983 where he was captain-coach of the Brothers club in Brisbane.

Tommy Raudonikis was Western Suburbs club captain from 1971 to 1979, and was Newtown club captain from 1980 to 1982.

Tommy Raudonikis 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.

Tommy Raudonikis was the regular Test halfback for the next six years.

Tommy Raudonikis made Test appearances up until 1980 by which time he was being challenged by Greg Oliphant and Steve Mortimer.

Tommy Raudonikis was the captain of the New South Wales State of Origin team in the inaugural 1980 "Origin" contest.

Tommy Raudonikis' final playing year was in a captain coach role at Brisbane Brothers in 1983.

Tommy Raudonikis 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.

Tommy Raudonikis coached the Blues in the 1997 and 1998 series.

Tommy Raudonikis was a long-term friend of 2GB radio station owner John Singleton.

Tommy Raudonikis made an appearance in the 2007 rugby league drama film The Final Winter.

In February 2008, Tommy Raudonikis was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.

In 2017, Tommy Raudonikis was a weekly guest on The Footy Show and had his own segment, "The Tommy Raudonikis Report".

Tommy Raudonikis was reported to have inoperable cancer in April 2019.