Tony Armstrong has made his last appearance as a sports presenter on ABC News Breakfast, describing his time on the program as a "joyride" during his farewell.

"News Breakfast has given me everything, really," he said while farewelling his colleagues on his final show. 

Armstrong is the second high-profile departure from News Breakfast this year, after presenter Lisa Millar left the show in August. 

A proud Gamilaroi man and former AFL player, Armstrong appeared as a fill-in sports presenter on the show in 2020, before taking up the role full-time the following year.

Armstrong became a well-known figure on Australian television, winning Logie awards in both 2022 and 2023, and was nominated for a Gold Logie in 2024.

A clip of his elation at the Socceroos making it into the 2022 World Cup made it all the way to US late-night program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Armstrong will continue to work with ABC, hosting a new show screening in 2025 that will be announced later this year.

As well as his role on News Breakfast, Armstrong hosted other ABC series including A Dog's World and Tony Armstrong's Extraordinary Things

His close friend and wheelchair tennis champion Dylan Alcott described Armstrong's behind-the-camera personality that the audience doesn't get to see.

"People know him as funny, charming, great, incredible at his job, but he's a beautiful person, and I'm very lucky to have him as a friend," Alcott said.

"The reason he got nominated for a Gold Logie and is dominating this is not because he is a champion footy player, not because he is Indigenous, but because he's bloody good at his job, he's bloody good at what he does."

Sports journalist and regular News Breakfast guest Bharat Sundaresan echoed Alcott's sentiment.

"The beauty of Tony Armstrong is he's all over the place. He will call you to a pub. There will be 18 people there and he will be introducing you to all of them and you will be talking to all of them," Sundaresan said.

"But I think his greatest strength, and your greater strength, is you always listen, and you are a connector of people, and you are blessed."

Armstrong put much of his success at News Breakfast down to the support of the team behind the scenes.

"It's more than just the people out here. We've got a bunch of producers and everyone, directors, people on autocue, who are doing the work of four or five people. And everyone does it so well.

"The help that I got over and over and over again from everyone was amazing and still is to this day. I'm going miss everyone. I'm going miss you all."

He also thanked his mother Margaret and his girlfriend Rona for their support.

News Breakfast host Michael Rowland got the last word, expressing his gratitude to Tony on behalf of the team.

"You've been a great colleague and Friend. I will deeply, deeply miss having you on the couch and he does every morning and I speak on behalf of all of us — Go well."

Armstrong's departure, which was announced in September, comes at the end of a tumultuous week for the sports presenter. 

Earlier in the week, Media Watch criticised him for doing voiceover work in an advertisement for insurance company NRMA without seeking approval from the ABC. 

“It’s a shame this moonlighting at the expense of the ABC’s integrity is what we’re talking about in his final week on News Breakfast,” Media Watch host Janine Perrett said.

A statement from the ABC described the incident as a "misunderstanding" between Armstrong's external representatives and the ABC.  

Following that, Armstrong was subjected to abusive and racist messages online, just days after the ABC released the findings of a review into racism at the national broadcaster. Director of News Justin Stevens released a statement calling out the trolling.

"It's been a funny old week," Armstrong said on the show Friday morning. 

"I'm just very thankful to everyone who watches and everyone who said such nice things to me across the course of this week particularly."