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Tony Armstrong knows what it's like to stare down the barrel of a big career change.
The ABC News Breakfast presenter was barely out of high school when he was drafted into the AFL. After 35 games for the Adelaide Crows, Sydney Swans, and the Collingwood Magpies over six years, Armstrong was — in his own words — "sacked because [he] wasn't good enough".
So, he pivoted. In 2020, he began hosting footy show Yokayi Footy for NITV, and producing and presenting sports content for ABC Radio. The next year he filled in on ABC News Breakfast, and was eventually appointed as the go-to sports presenter.
With his infectious charm on full-watt display for the entire country every morning, the Logie awards started rolling in.
First he took out most popular new talent in 2022, then the Silver Logie for most popular presenter in 2023.
In 2024, after hosting five-part ABC TV series Tony Armstrong's Extra-Ordinary Things, the 34-year-old's up for the big one, the Gold Logie (as well as most popular presenter again).
If he takes out the top gong, he'll be the first Indigenous Australian to ever win it. (Ray Martin, a five-time Gold Logie winner, has Kamilaroi ancestry but does not identify as Aboriginal.)
We caught up with Tony to have a little chit chat about changing careers, watching television and why his younger self would think he's a nerd.
Where are your Logie Awards right now?
In the back of the house, I'm assuming, I haven't looked [laughs]. I've got a nice little office out the back and that's where they are. It's a nice little spot.
My pool room is an office and it's conveniently always visible for everyone, so they're always reminded.
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What would it mean for you to win the Gold Logie?
I've been asked that a bit and I think I was a bit flippant about it when I first got nominated.
The more I think about it, the less it seems about me. It would be so great to see brown kids and brown adults all over the country see themselves recognised at that level.
It would be very cool because these awards aren't really for us. That's how I feel.
What was your favourite extra-ordinary thing and why?
It changes all the time and it really relies on recency bias. I think the story that went with [11-year-old Western Australian rapper] Inkabee. The whole story with his father was just incredible. I think that was super, super special.
What is your first memory of television?
Not getting to watch it!
Really?!
Yeah, I didn't really watch it much as a kid!
I remember, it's quite funny, we didn't have much but I never felt deficit with anything else. The one thing I did feel like I didn't have was telly. We had a telly at home but my mum was restrictive, in a good way. She just wanted me to be clever.
I had allocated TV time but I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons. Don't worry, I've caught up, but it's like a cultural thing. You come into school, kids would be talking about it, and I hadn't seen it. It was the only time I ever felt like I had less than.
What were you allowed to watch?
Far out… like, The Bill (laughs), Keeping Up Appearances.
I think if I was to sit down and watch Keeping Up Appearances now, I would howl with laughter. As a kid, you haven't fully formed the idea of a social construct and pride and status, but as you get older you're like, 'Oh my God, I get it.'
Your children's book George the Wizard is out in October. What is your favourite children's book?
Oh now, that was one of those things where I probably felt like I had surplus compared to other kids.
I've read so much. I used to read Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, The Twits and BFG. Secret Seven, Famous Five … all those types of classics.
What's your go-to cafe breakfast order?
Well, normally I'm just shitty that I'm awake, so I'm like, "Get me a strong latte" [laughs].
I'm just trying to be really mindful of what I eat but that tends to mainly happen when Rona's [Rona Glynn-McDonald, musician and Armstrong's partner] around. Maybe like, no bread, some fried eggs and avocado. But as soon as she's gone I'm like, "Yeah, get me some vegemite on toast, what's up?"
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What advice would you give to people who are embarking on a career change?
Commit. You can't half do it.
The way society is set up, we're so concerned with keeping up appearances and so averse to taking chances on things that might fail. We will cut off our nose to spite our face.
When most people are making a career change, we're doing it aspirationally. Like, "I'm dreaming bigger, I'm thinking more, there's more to me than what I am now." That then means you're going to be doing something that you're not sure you can actually do.
So, you have to commit because, if you don't, there's no way it's going to work and you're just going to be doing yourself a disservice.
You mentioned to Zan Rowe on Take 5 how hard the transition out of sport was for you. What's your best advice for dealing with rejection?
Get used to it [laughs].
It's never not going to be a possibility and not everything can be for everyone. Then there's timing, there's ability, there's luck; there's all these things that have an impact. Sometimes you're just not going to be good enough to do what you want to do and that's OK.
That's where I got to in footy. I wasn't good enough. I know that sounds weird for someone who played, but what I wanted to do was not what I did.
I think that is a high achiever thing, where you're always seeing where you could do better or do more. So, you've got to be gentle to yourself.
Not everything is a reflection of your ability.
Yeah, but also I think ability and self-worth should be very different buckets, right? Like, how good I am at presenting shouldn't be the only thing that I hold self-worth in.
That's why it was so hard for me when I finished footy, because I was conflating my identity and my ability. My perception of myself and my perception of the way other people viewed me was all one concentric circle around that job I had.
Nowadays, I like to think that how good I am at my job has got nothing to do with whether or not I'm an honest person, it's got nothing to do with how much love I've got.
If you're thinking, "Is this it?" or feeling melancholy about your job, that's probably a sign that you're leaning too far into self-worth from external stuff.
If there was a museum of Tony Armstrong, what would be the main artefact?
Aww, I didn't expect that! There'd probably be some footy jumpers, some records, maybe a telly? I spoke about having a deficit before; now I can sit down and watch TV for hours.
Can I put friendships in there? I've been lucky to have lived in a lot of places and made very good friends, so if I could find a way to put my friendships with them in there it would be that.
What's a horror movie that scared you when you were little?
The Grudge. I went to boarding school and we all watched The Grudge together. These bedrooms were not separate rooms: It was like a big office building with partitions that didn't go all the way up. It was an old 1950s, 1940s building, so you can imagine the sounds it made.
When you went to the toilet at night there was just a fluorescent light that went kinda like, "flick, flick". I don't think I went to the toilet overnight for three months.
The power of cinema. What would young you think is deeply uncool about current you?
That I work in the news? What a nerd.
Was news ever the plan?
No. Not at all. Sometimes people will call me a journalist and I have to be like, "No, not a journo, not at all."
I'm really lucky. I know that the way I came in is really freakish. The timing was right, I was the right person, so many other forces were at play. It's been a dream run really. But no training. None. So all of it is instinctual, I guess, rather than process.
So, what does your ideal career look like?
I'd like to try acting. I'd love to do something like that.
Is there anything like that in the pipeline for you?
Yeah, it's been a merry-go-round of tiny little roles that have come where people will like, "We just want you as you." And I'm like "f**k off!" [laughs]. I'll just have to be really particular about the first acting thing.
What was the last thing on the internet that made you laugh?
It was this classic New York comedian at the Comedy Cellar. He goes: "So I saw this Michael Phelps dude the other day, eight miles an hour! He's the best we got! You know a tuna can do 40 miles an hour! This isn't the tuna, this is just a tuna!"
I was pissing myself! It's just so irreverent. You do have to be clever to be that dumb.
Voting for the 64th TV Week Logie Awards is open now.
EDITOR'S NOTE: August 14, 2024: An initial version of this story said that Tony Armstrong would be the first Indigenous Australian to ever win a Gold Logie. The story was updated to include additional context about prior Gold Logie winner Ray Martin, who has Indigenous heritage but does not identify as Indigenous.