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News RiP Tommy Raudonikis

davi

Juniors
Messages
1,933
Tommy will never be considered a great coach, but he certainly stepped up when both the Magpies and NSW needed him.

When he came into Wests in 95, the club had an ageing roster and not much money (he helped build the club's first gym himself), yet he somehow got them within two wins of the 8 in his first year, into the Finals in 96 and then within a game in 97 (that loss to South Queensland still haunts me today).

In 98 & 99, the club simply didn't have the money to buy any decent players and it showed in the results, but to Tommy's credit he never stopped trying for the club.

RIP Tommy, you will be missed.

Yeah, I remember during his tenure coaching Wests on the Footy Show complaining that his club was bidding for a player and was completely blown out of the water from another club. When he coached Wests it certainly had its limitations and really had to make best with what he could get. Des Hasler in his twighlight of his career spent his final year with Wests after being told by Manly he wouldn't be offered another contract during Raudonikis tenure.
 
Messages
15,456
Nice article published in the Sydney Morning Herald today by Roy Masters (source: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/a-...-tommy-defined-integrity-20210408-p57hjn.html) -

OPINION
A man who couldn’t lie: Why one-of-a-kind Tommy defined integrity
29b8785009d0a7b2a6436d8d628ed2c6ae33d36d

Roy Masters
Sports Columnist
April 8, 2021 — 4.00pm

“Integrity” has become such a hackneyed word in rugby league today, it is almost meaningless. Yet Tom Raudonikis, who died on Wednesday, defined it. He was incapable of telling a lie.

He possessed an antennae, a built in early radar system which detected the strengths and weaknesses of others and allowed him to become a topdog on the football field and a champion of the underdog off it.

He loathed hypocrisy and duplicity. One story demonstrates this. In 1984, he completed his second season as coach of Brisbane Brothers and became aware of moves to replace him. The club’s annual presentation night was approaching and none of the club committee had the guts to tell him he’d been sacked.

Tom called me at my Sydney home and requested what he called “a special speech to stick it up the bastards.” Aware the Brothers was a Catholic Old Boys club and cognisant Tommy had been educated by the nuns at Cowra, I opted for a message designed to make the committee squirm over their treachery.

Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” came to mind and, in those pre-email days, I dictated the speech over the phone, detailing the virtues the Cowra nuns had imbued in him, including honesty.

He was to end the speech with a stage left turn to the seated committemen, pointing to the president who had once befriended him, saying, “Et tu, Brute.”

I insisted Tom drink only two schooners before speaking. He called a few times through the day, concerned he could not deliver the speech without referring to his notes.

“Tuck it down the front of your trousers and reference it when needed,” I said. “People will appreciate you have gone to the trouble to write it.”

Later that day, he drove to Brisbane airport to collect Henry Foster, an indigenous player who had won the Player of the Year award. Tom tried out the speech on Henry and when he reached the “Et tu” bit, Henry said, “You’re kiddin’, Tom.”

Just after midnight, my phone rang. It was Tommy telling me how successful the speech had been. “The players and their wives all stood up on the tables and cheered and cheered...and the committee blokes shit themselves.”

However, he had a confession to make, consistent with the searing honesty which had been his lifetime companion.

“Sorry mate,” he said. “But I had six schooners.”

Of the hundreds of messages I have received since Tom’s passing, one from former NRL media manger, John Brady, resonated most.


“He taught us many things,” Brady said. “He pulled a bit of snobbery out of all of us. He taught us not to look down on people.”

“Brades’s” colleague, Geoff Carr, was Tom’s manager of the NSW State of Origin team.

At the launch of the 1997 series, Carr’s namesake, NSW Premier Bob Carr, stood on the stage beside Tommy and it was noted the Blues coach wasn’t wearing socks.

With the formalities complete, Geoff said, “Tommy, we’d better get you some socks.”

As they parted, Tom turned to Geoff and said, “I don’t have any underpants either. You better get some of those, too.”

On the eve of the NSW team’s trip to Melbourne for the MCG “Cattledog” match against Queensland, a fund raiser was held for Adam Ritson, a former Sharks and Eels player who suffered a serious head injury the previous year and was forced to retire aged 20.

It was the final year of the Super League war and players from both the ARL and News Limited funded competitions met socially for the first time.

The following morning, as Geoff hurried the players onto the bus, he found a dishevelled Tommy who declared, “I’ve got my socks on but can’t find my teeth.”

He wasn’t always so co-operative when a league official questioned his lack of sartorial splendour. When he signed with the Ipswich Jets, the club chairman gave him a $250 voucher, redeemable at a mens’ wear store.

“Don’t they think I dress proper?” he asked me indignantly over the phone.

When his Queensland club coaching career was over, he worked at the Brisbane Markets, adding “Tommy Tomato” to his many nicknames.

Mobile phones in cars had become available and Tommy mocked the yuppies when stationary at traffic lights, reaching for an old handset on the front seat and engaging in an imaginary conversation.

As a player, reigning premiership coach, the Storm’s Craig Bellamy, summed Tommy up best.

“If I showed vision of Tommy to my team, they’d say, ‘He’s not a halfback’. He’s taking the ball up like a front rower, he’s tackling like a second rower...”

Of all the modern players, Storm utility Brandon Smith reminds me most of Tommy with his fierce dummy half runs and skill at exploiting a gap in the defensive line. Like Tommy, Smith is also under-rated for his self appraisal of his play. But there is no way Tommy would be replaced after 50 minutes, as Smith sometimes is. Tommy would be racing up the stairs to the coach’s box, quicker than the coach was escaping it.

As a coach, everyone wanted to play for Tommy but he could blur a message. Once, when asked what type of defensive pattern the NSW team would employ, he said, “We’ll slide, go up and in and then we’ll bash them.”

At a time his loved ones are searching for meaning in life, Tom’s devoted partner, Trish, sent a text. It read “Tommy passed away at 7am on the 7th. He was 70 and he wore jersey No 7.”


Seven is also the sacred number of the ancient gods, combining the square and the rectangle. There are also seven seas, seven days in the week, seven sacraments, seven wonders of the ancient world.

But only one Tommy.

Please remember him when you next use the word “integrity.”
 
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15,456
The Newtown Jets are having a "Thanks Tommy Day" at their next home game on 17 April 2021 (source: https://www.newtownjets.com/buy-tickets-first-home-game-vs-newcastle-now/) -

Buy Tickets First Home Game vs Newcastle (THANKS TOMMY DAY) Now

Tickets for our first home game against the Newcastle Knights at Henson Park on Saturday, 17th April are now available to purchase. The Jets will be honouring the life and career of the great Tom Raudonikis on the day.

Click here to pre-purchase tickets from our ticketing partner, IWannaTicket. Pre-sale tickets are $12.50 for non-members.

You can also buy tickets at the door on gameday for $15.

Please note that Newtown Jets members do not need to pre-purchase tickets. They can just present their passes at the gate.

Everyone must scan a QR Code upon entry. For more information on the COVID protocols at Henson Park, click here.

There will be no parking available inside the ground for the general public for at least our first two games due to construction work that is still ongoing at the south eastern end of the ground.
 

Brutus

Referee
Messages
26,350
Should have Tommy have been afforded a state funeral?

It seems rugby league types get overlooked when it comes to this kind of stuff.
 

Canard

Immortal
Messages
35,611
Should have Tommy have been afforded a state funeral?

It seems rugby league types get overlooked when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Generally you would have to be pretty outstanding in your chosen field, Captain of Australia etc.
 

Zoe Palmer

Juniors
Messages
211
How many of the 17 than ran out on Sunday actually knew who Tommy was.

my guess is 3 at the most and no wonder that they didn’t put in emotionally. The club appeared to have the same approach to the games as the players
 
Messages
15,456
Generally you would have to be pretty outstanding in your chosen field, Captain of Australia etc.

Tommy captained Australia in two tests on the 1973 Kangaroo Tour, namely the series deciding 3rd Test against Great Britain (which Australia won 15-5) and the following test which was against France (which Australia won 21-9).
 
Messages
12,484
Good stuff, probably could have done it at Lidcombe oval, or Henson park, but as long as he gets a public memorial i suppose its fine, no matter where it is


Agree but I don’t mind it being at the biggest stage Tommy played at, although having more bars at the SCG to help celebrate his memory may have been a motivator.
 

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