TOMMY Raudonikis’ stories stretched all the way back to the birth of Origin in 1980.
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The Blues legend told tales of the NSW team’s bus almost
getting tipped over by Queensland fans in Caxton Street.
The state side was spat on and beer was thrown at them on their way to the dressing room.
“It wasn’t like it is now where the buses go underneath and the players are escorted,” he said.
Raudonikis said the Lang Park atmosphere that night was “unbelievable”.
“I led NSW out to the biggest boo I have ever heard in my life,” he said. “It was like thunder.”
History was made that night from the first scrum, when Beetson “went mad”.
“He hit Steve Edge, he bashed Mick Cronin, everybody,” Raudonikis said. “That night State of Origin was born.”
The legendary Cattledog call is part of NSW folklore, and Raudonikis explained its origin.
It was down to former Parramatta and Canterbury player Jim Dymock, who said during the 1997 Origin camp that Raudonikis’ tenacity reminded him of a cattledog.
NSW was one up in the series, and Raudonikis needed a call for players to “come to arms” in game two at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“Jimmy [Dymock] put his hand up and said ‘call it
cattledog, because you remind us of a cattledog that will latch on and won’t let go,” he said. “We won down in Melbourne, ladies and gentlemen. Won the series two nil.”
But, he wasn’t just confined to stories from the field either.
Raudonikis spoke about off-field incidents, like the Steve Mortimer luggage incident.
That happened in 1977 in an eighth storey hotel room.
An argument over who was the No. 1 halfback culminated in Raudonikis hurling the bags out the window.
“They’ve gone down eight storeys and I could hear these cars screeching below,” he said. “His mouth was agape.”