Tommy Raudonikis

Tommy Raudonikis (13 April 1950 - 7 April 2021) was born Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. He is the son of a Lithuanian immigrant father and a Swiss immigrant mother. He joined the RAAF as an Engineering Apprentice in 1967 and spent three years under training at RAAF Wagga. He was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He played 40 Tests and World Cup games as Australia representative halfback and captained his country in two Tests of the 1973 Kangaroo tour. Raudonikis is a long-term friend of 2GB radio station owner John Singleton. Through this friendship, he also participated as a commentator for the Continuous Call Team with Ray Hadley on 2GB. Raudonikis' hospitalization 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. Raudonikis at one stage worked 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, including Raudonikis, into the club's Hall of Fame. In 2017, Raudonikis was a weekly guest on The Footy Show and had his own segment, "The Raudonikis Report".