Second year player Tony Armstrong wants to take the next step, and has been close to doing so for a while.

After breaking his arm at the end of last year in North Adelaide’s reserves, Armstrong has been a regular in the Roosters’ league side in 2009, often been named in the best.

His SANFL form has seen him named as an emergency for Adelaide and twice he has travelled with the team to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

He signed a new contract with the club that will see him here for at least the next two years and with persistence an AFL debut is not far away.

Armstrong chats with afc.com.au...


The past couple of months have been good for you form wise and you have been named as an emergency a number of times. How have you viewed your footy?
“I’ve look at it as a successful couple of months I guess. I’ve come a long way with my footy and to be considered for selection has been really good. I had a couple of trips away, one to Brisbane and one to the Gold Coast. It’s a positive step in the right direction with my footy and I’ve just got to try and build and hopefully I can take the next step and get a game before the end of the year.”

What are the things that you and the coaches identified that you needed to work on to take that next step?
“Generally just trying to run games out, use my speed to get out in the open and have a really good work rate. So it’s about maintaining a good level of work rate, trying to work harder than my opponent and also focusing on beating my man one-on-one as well.

“It’s pretty much been my focus from the get go this year. Trying to be strong in the contested ball and one on one and from there really high work rate. As long as I have the ball in my hands I feel pretty confident and pretty comfortable. It’s just about doing the stuff without the ball.”

After a tough finish to last year what did you set yourself to achieve this year?
“I haven’t achieved all my goals yet, I wanted to play just the one game of AFL footy this year. That hasn’t come to fruition yet but there’s still a couple of weeks to go plus finals. I guess the very first goal I set was to get through the pre-season unscathed and that happened. That has obviously set up a pretty good fitness base and it has allowed me to work on those focus points, which have been higher work rate and harder running than my opponent.”

What other things can you put in place to see yourself take the next step even if it isn’t this season?
“Getting another pre-season under the belt is only going to help me more. It will give me another chance to take my fitness to the next level. I want to come back physically stronger. I’m pretty light in size. Myself and David Mackay are in a competition to see who is not the lightest at the whole club! Hopefully I can come back with a few more kilos and some more muscle mass. It would help me become stronger over the ball and help me be a lot stronger in one-on-one contests. I’m still happy with the way that has gone but with another pre-season of solid work and no games you get a lot of time to work on the things that aren’t so strong. If I can do all those things right, get an opportunity in the NAB Cup then you don’t know what could happen next season.”

Your mentor at the club is Andrew McLeod. How much of an influence has he been on you?
“He’s been great. We’ve sort of taken another step with our relationship in that we’ve become really good friends. I trust him with anything now. We can switch off from friend mode to him being my mentor and he’s there to help me and give me strong feedback if he thinks something isn’t good enough. He’s been the measuring stick of the competition for a long time in terms of running half back flankers. They’re pretty good footsteps to try and follow in.”

Have you benefited from his guidance both on and off the field?

“Especially with my heritage he has really helped me discover more about myself and my culture. He is unbelievable. He’s great family man, a nice guy and really intelligent and he’s obviously a great footballer.”

Off the field you’ve moved in with Richard Douglas. How’s that going?
“It’s really good. Dougy would probably lie to you but I do most of the cooking at home so that’s a little bit of a burden! It’s all really good I enjoy it there. I sort of knew about Dougy before I came here because we went to the same school (Assumption College) so we already had a bit of a bond before we got over here. He had the same host parents as me when he first came over so we’ve got a lot in common in our pathways.”

Have you enjoyed the move from host family to living with another player?
“Yeah I’m enjoying it. Everything from sharing a car to training, if you have forgotten about something you always get reminded. It’s just good for the company living with someone your own age. We’ve got heaps of competitions going on around the house. Basketball, cricket, pool, table tennis, the works!”

Who’s winning most of them?
“Armstrong! I reckon I am, he won’t like that!”

Have you caught up with anyone from home?
“I’ve only had a chance to go home once this whole year. So I’m looking forward to getting home in the off-season but there’s still possibly eight or nine weeks of footy left to go. So two more months of hard work to be done then after that I’ll have an opportunity to spend some time with family and friends.”

Do they get down to Adelaide much?
“I’m actually pretty lucky. Mum moved over at the start of the year so she could get a year of long service leave so her and her partner moved down. That’s really helped me settle in Adelaide. I do like to get home now and then just like everyone else does; just a bit of a change up now and again. But I’m really enjoying Adelaide, it feels like home now.”

You signed a new contract with the club not long ago, that would have been really pleasing for you?
“Yeah it was pretty exciting to see the club take a step of faith with me. It shows they have a bit of confidence in me to play footy at AFL level. Hopefully I can play well and hopefully it will be the first of many.”