It’s not often a player will regard his fourth game for a club, or his 18^th career game as the No.1 moment of his career. But Tony Armstrong does.

It was Friday night 22 June 2012. Round 13 of his third season in the AFL and his first season with the Sydney Swans.

A 22-year-old Armstrong ran onto the SCG alongside Adam Goodes wearing the #19 guernsey worn previously by Michael O’Loughlin.

As the AFL celebrates the 2021 Sir Doug Nicholls Round and the Indigenous contribution to football this week Armstrong talks of that moment nine years ago as if it was yesterday.

Armstrong had 13 possessions and kicked a first-quarter goal as Sydney beat Geelong by six-points, but it more than just a game to the least experienced member of the home side.

“It doesn’t get any better than that,” said Armstrong. “It was the moment for me. Unbelievable. I had to pinch myself,” Armstrong said.

“Sadly, I didn’t get to play with Mickey O, but to run out next to Goodesy wearing Mickey O’s number was mind-blowing. Goodesy was my hero growing up, and now that I’ve grown up … or kinda grown up … it’s something I’ll never ever forget.”

Nor will those lucky enough to have been at the Swans during his time at the club forget Tony Armstrong. And if you don’t know him now you soon will.

He is a media performer on the up and up, working full-time with the ABC in Melbourne as a producer and presenter, hosting the hugely popular Yokayi football show, and turning his hand to anything else that pops up.

An engaging young man with a sharp self-effacing sense of humour, he is wise beyond his years, highly admired and respected within media ranks and destined for bigger things.

Born in Paddington, Sydney, and raised in the Riverina by single mother Margaret, with a father ‘not around’ and no siblings ‘that I know of’, he is one of football’s great success stories. An inspiration.

He moved with his Mum to the tiny town of Brocklesby, 45km north-west of Albury, and later to nearby Burrumbuttock, equally small with a population of about 200.

There was a defining moment in his life when his mother, a primary school teacher, sent him away to boarding school at Assumption College, Kilmore, famous as a football nursery.

“I wanted to dodge high school and become a tradie like most of my mates,” he said, admitting “anyone who knows me will know I could never have been a tradie. But Mum insisted I finish school.”

It wasn’t as if he walked into the prestigious school on a scholarship. He didn’t. His Mum made “massive sacrifices” to pay his way. “It’s not something you fully appreciate at the time but I’ll be forever grateful. She’s everything to me Mum.”

Still close to a lot of his school friends, Armstrong finished at Assumption about the same time he was drafted by the Crows with selection #58 in the 2007 National Draft after having played with the NSW/ACT Rams and the Calder Cannons in the TAC Cup.

As Melbourne is sent into another Covid lockdown again this week, it is ironic to recount the story of his AFL debut. Or non debut.

He was named to play Round 13 2009 but was quarantined with housemate and fellow Assumption graduate Richard Douglas due to a swine flu scare and had to wait until Round 1 2010.

After 14 games with Adelaide in 2010-11 he quit the club and requested a trade to Sydney.

His first game in red and white was bitter sweet. It was Round 4. He had the #19 guernsey, which was worn briefly by Daniel Bradshaw after O’Loughlin’s retirement, but he only got his chance because co-captain Goodes was out.

When Goodes returned Armstrong was dropped. After being an emergency in Rounds 5-6-7-8-9 Armstrong got another chance in Rounds 10-11 but Goodes was out with a quad strain.

It was Round 13, Armstrong’s fourth game with the Swans and his 18^th overall, before things finally aligned and the wide-eyed youngster played with his hero.

“I’d met Goodesy at an Indigenous Camp four years earlier so when I joined the club it wasn’t what it might have been. But it was still so special. They say ‘never meet your heroes’ but for me it just got better. He’s just such a nice man.”

Goodes’ biggest influence on Armstrong? “How long have you got? One of the things that hit me most was how strong he was and is to his convictions. If he thinks it’s right he’ll back it no matter how hard it is. He’s truly amazing. It’s the same with Mickey O. Unbelievable people.”

Eleven games later Armstrong’s career with the Swans was over. He was delisted. And two years and six games at Collingwood further on his AFL career was done. At 25 he’d played 35 games in total.

But a chance meeting with ex-Brisbane premiership hero Chris Johnson post-football changed everything and set the outgoing and well-spoken young man on a different path. Johnson asked him if he’d like to do some AFL radio commentary with the National Indigenous Radio Service.

“I’d never considered it but I said ‘yeah, why not?’ and I’ve loved it ever since. I was working in advertising and although I was happy and doing OK it wasn’t something that had me jumping out of bed every morning.

“I loved the media, I seemed to be OK at it, and here we are,” he said. “I fell upwards, if you like. I keep getting great opportunities and I keep having a crack. How lucky am I?

“I’m definitely better at talking about footy than I was playing it,” he added.

Where did his media talents come from? “I put it all down to Mum. She always loved the performing arts. She took me to the theatre, encouraged me to read a lot and always try to learn,” he said.

Then Armstrong said something that, while so totally wrong, was full of wisdom and underpins why he has been so successful in the media space so quickly.

“I’d already failed once,” he said. “In my mind I wanted to be an AFL footballer and I didn’t make it. I busted my arse and wasn’t good enough. It’s a tough lesson to learn. You can put everything into something and it still might not work out. It’s a very important life lesson.

“I guess because of that I’m a bit fearless when it comes to what I do now. I prepare really hard, I work to be the best I can be, and I don’t stress about things too much. I can be myself as much as possible. I’m always trying to get better, trying to get really good, and make the most of myself.”

Now 31, Armstrong is an absolute and unashamed Swans fan. Or “a Swans nuffie” as he called himself.

“I don’t get to as many games these days as I’d like but I’m planning to get up there (to Sydney) a couple of times later this year and when they make the finals ... make sure you say when .… I’ll definitely be there,” he said.

His favourites? He says he still has a connection with Josh Kennedy, Dane Rampe, Luke Parker, Sam Reid and Harry Cunningham, ex-teammates who are still at the club, but confesses to an unashamed love affair with Ollie Florent, Callum Mills and Errol Gulden. “Make sure they get a mention. They are my absolute favourites,” he said laughing.