The 18-year-old finished high school last year and didn't have a clear career path, so he decided to enrol at the Richmond Institute of Sports Leadership.

Lavis attended classes earlier in the year at the AFL club's Wodonga campus, before the pandemic brought an end to on-site learning and planned placement opportunities.

The Tigers wanted to ensure they could still offer experiences to students and Lavis was among a statewide group of more than 200 who completed an online placement with Richmond's list manager Blair Hartley.

Hartley has been in list management at Richmond and Port Adelaide for more than a decade.

He clearly made a good impression and was one of five from the group to be selected to do a second placement with national recruiting boss Matt Clarke, who has also been at Richmond more than 10 years.

Lavis hopes the experience can be a stepping stone for a potential career in sport as he has ambitions to coach senior football one day.

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"We were put in groups and given a scenario. We had an upcoming draft and it was based off a real situation," Lavis said.

"You had to decide how to shape the list for next season, whether you got rid of the big contracts and older players for more draft picks and decided to rebuild or not.

"The scenario my group got given was Geelong in 2006 when they got (Joel) Selwood and (Tom) Hawkins.

"I found I stood out well in that because I'd say I've got a fairly good footy mind and we got most things right of what actually happened.

"About a month later I got a call from the Richmond Institute saying I was one of five students picked out of everyone to go into a further placement with Matt Clarke.

"We reviewed games and a few players from the NAB League and had to analyse what the players were doing well and what they could have done better.

"Matt showed us what goes into recruiting and list management and what to look for depending on your team's situation.

"It was a really good experience. You'd never really get the chance to work with two people so high up in list management."

The Corowa-Rutherglen footballer wants take some of that knowledge back to the Ovens and Murray club.

"It's a great program for people who are interested in sport and not really sure what they want to do," Lavis said.

Despite connecting with staff at Richmond, Lavis will be supporting his beloved Geelong Cats in Saturday night's AFL grand final.