Tony Armstrong

Tony Armstrong is a proud Barranbinya Australian who grew up in rural NSW, and a former professional Australian rules footballer who can now be seen working as a television presenter. He played AFL for Adelaide, Collingwood and Sydney, where he was able to play alongside one of the Aboriginal men who inspired him as a child, Adam Goodes.

Tony debuted his professional AFL career playing for Adelaide in 2008 to 2011. He later requested a trade to the Sydney Swans in 2012, which was the club he had supported as a child growing up in NSW, and replaced the club captain, Adam Goodes, who had been suspended from the match. Finally, Tony joined Collingwood, where he featured in the final five games of the 2014 season.

In 2019, Tony became the first Indigenous person to call live action AFL on commercial radio. He has also made appearances on the Marngrook Footy Show, and has become a regular panellist on the online panel show ‘The Colour of Your Jumper’. Tony later became the co-host of the Indigenous comedy football chat show ‘Yokayi Footy’ (2020), in a collaboration between NITV and the AFL. He joined ABC as a producer and presenter of sports news, presenting through radio and television on ABC News, commentating for Grandstand AFL on ABC Sport, and hosting the summer series of ‘Offsiders’. In the same year Tony also co-hosted ABC Melbourne’s breakfast radio with Sammy J.

In 2021, the ABC announced Tony as their full-time sports presenter, replacing Paul Kennedy, on ABC TV’s News Breakfast. His work on this show saw him receiving the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent at the 2022 Logie Awards. In the following year, Tony also won the Bert Newton award for Most Popular Presenter at the 2023 Logies. His other television credits include regular appearances on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, The Yearly, The Project and Fox Footy. He has been a guest on numerous ‘Play School’ specials and is the voice of Mr Flip on ABC Kids Reef School.

Tony is not only a rising star in Australian media, but also an extremely talented writer and creator, and is currently developing various television projects.