First, Tony Armstrong was a footy player. In his early 20s he played AFL for the Adelaide Crows, Sydney Swans, then Collingwood, before hanging up his boots at 25. A few years down the track, Armstrong was recruited to work as a radio commentator, before eventually pivoting to a career as an onscreen sports reporter. Now, aged 32, he is the sports presenter of ABC morning program News Breakfast, a gig he loves. (“I’m definitely better at talking about footy than I was playing it,” Armstrong has previously told Guardian Australia.)
In another dream role, Armstrong also recently helmed the ABC special A Dog’s World, a three-part series about humanity’s relationship with our four-legged companions. And from 8.00pm on Thursday 30 June, he’ll co-host ABC 90 Celebrate, a two-hour live event marking his employer’s 90th birthday. But for all his success in media, being on the telly was never part of Armstrong’s life plan.
“It’s so weird because I never pictured this,” he says. “When you’re 15 and you’re like, oh, I’ll be an astronaut, or I’ll be a neuro-physicist or whatever. This wasn’t on my bingo card.”
Before the AFL and the TV gigs, Armstrong actually wanted to be a session musician. Here, the TV host tells us about a missing memento from that time, as well as the story of two other important personal belongings – one utterly unique, the other deeply relatable.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
Someone very dear to me is an artist – his name’s Harry Thring and he lives over in Hamburg now. About eight or nine years ago, he made me a light installation artwork. It’s my pride and joy.
It’s maybe 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres and it sits in my living room up on my wall. To make it, Harry pinpricked a piece of fabric many times and put a lightbox behind it. When I turn it on, with the light coming through, it almost looks like a film negative. It’s irreplaceable. Even if he tried to make it again it would be different just by virtue of the fact that there’s 10,000 pinpricks in the thing.
It’s really sentimental to me because it was the first piece of art I ever bought and it’s made by one of my best friends. I might get burned because of how long it would take me to get it out in a fire, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
My most useful object
It’s got to be my couch. It’s so, so comfy and I love it so much. I use it to sit, I use it to sleep, I sometimes eat on the couch. I’m really painting myself as a slob here – I promise I do stand up sometimes. But it’s where I am the most relaxed and probably the most calm, when I’m having a read or watching telly or something.
The item I most regret losing
I played drums for 10 or 11 years when I was younger and wanted to be a session drummer when I grew up. Those are the people who, say, Justin Bieber would call up when he’s in town and wants to lay down a track with drums. I wouldn’t have actually been good enough for the job, but that’s what I wanted to do.
The first band I fell in love with was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their drummer, Chad Smith, is a don in the drumming world. One day I went to watch a drum clinic he ran. There were about 200 people in the auditorium and Chad just played, talked about the tracks and told stories as he was drumming. It was awesome for anyone who, like me, was a drum nerd. Afterwards, you could get one item signed. I took a drum skin and had it signed by Chad Smith, then later took it to get framed.
But one day, years later, I lost it in a move from Sydney to Melbourne. I was absolutely devastated because that was a precious piece of rock’n’roll memorabilia and it meant a lot to me.
