Written Friday 09/02/2007

TOMMY RAUDONIKIS

As a young bloke growing up,  I used to watch these guys run around on rugby league fields absolutely smashing the snot out of each other,  I wanted to be nothing more than as tough as them,  no question.  Tom Raudonikis was a household name,  as the probably one of the tougher blokes I watched running around playing the game,  tough,  uncompromising and outright dirty.  However,  as time went on,  my own personal definition of dirty changed somewhat.  A couple of areas of the body were sacrosanct,  eyes,  testicles and biting forbidden,  but if you were going to hand it out,  then you best be able to take it.  So given the areas not to be touched,  if you could give what you took,  I personally did not consider you a dirty player,  and we had refs to control head high shots and that sort of stuff.  Other than that,  footy was a free for all on a Saturday afternoon.

Anyway,  back to Raudonikis,  and when you get an invite to go and hear a guy you revered speak,  you go.  So off I trundled to the National Hotel in Toowoomba,  courtesy of Ray Mclellan and Yellow Cabs (you will always find Ray at these Friday winding down businessman lunches),  some time in 2005 I would think,  to hear Tommy speak.

Well,  not only does Tommy go down as tough,  he is also tremendously funny,  one of the most amusing men or women I have ever heard speak.  We went through the whole afternoon,  and the memorabilia auction,  for one clear message,  which I will relate later,  a very important message from Tom Raudonikis.

Firstly though,  a couple of the stories,  a bit hazy,  but still with me.  Tom spoke of one incident where he traveled to Qld for State of Origin,  and was roomed with Steve Mortimer,  the NSW halfback,  but Tom was the incumbent Kangaroo halfback.  The immediate impression was that Tommy did not like Steve Mortimer,  and upon arriving at their hotel room,  at about the fourth floor,  Mortimer said he would be taking the large room,  and Tom could have the small room.  Tom intimated that as he was the incumbent national halfback,  that wasn't quite how it was going to work,  and it would in fact be structured in exactly the reverse.

Tom said he put his gear in the large room and headed off to the bar,  or somewhere,  only to return to find the living arrangements changed.  Tom promptly gathered up Mortimer's gear and threw it all out of the hotel window on to the street below.

Tom went on to describe many incidents that day in his playing days with Wests and Newtown,  and of course at Wests he probably would have played with Ronnie Giteau,  father of current Wallaby Matt,  another genuine hard man from the era.

The key message for me though was described when Tom talked of his being usurped from Wests to Newtown by John Singleton.  A huge under the table payment,  huge for that time at least,  of $50000 was made to Tom for him to switch sides.  He went on to say,  that he wasn't a great footballer,  by any stretch,  but Singleton knew that Raudonikis knew how to win,  and knew how to inspire other men to win.

Raudonikis knew how to win.  I reckon that plenty of people today don't know how to win,  and probably never will,  and for kids coming out of school on big payments,  it isn't really going to matter.  But it is not only about sport,  not many people know how to win in life,  and are not prepared to make the necessary changes to become winners in life.  Plenty of people complain about their changing circumstances,  but don't make conciliatory changes to compensate and in later years pay for the changes now.

It's that sacrifice thing again,  and it's about how much are you prepared to go through now to be successful in the future,  and just having a bit of a look at the future to see what you think might happen,  and making a bit of a plan for it.

For example,  the company my wife is with recently changed cars from Magnas to Ford Territorys.  Everything we read and hear everywhere tells us oil is running out.  The Magna ran at about 8.5 to 10 litres per 100 kilometres,  this big bag of pus at 13 to 15 litres per 100 kilomteres,  about 50% worse fuel consumption.  so as well as a higher capital cost,  this thing will chew up about 70% more cost than the last one as fuel marches relentlessly towards $1.50 per litre and higher.  I wonder how people get and keep jobs at the top of trees,  because you can dress it up as much as you like,  you increase profits very few ways,  essentially given stable volume,  you can increase the price,  or decrease the cost of producing an item,  it's really that simple.

The Man at the Top of the Mountain Didn't Fall There!