The girl from Ballarat who didn’t know these jobs existed
How Richmond Institute opened Georgina Eddy’s eyes to a world of sport, and a career she never knew was possible.
Like a lot of students in small towns, Georgina Eddy went through high school believing there were only three ways to work in sport: be an athlete, a physio or a coach.
Then, in Year 12, an ad popped up on her phone.
The info session
A lifelong Richmond supporter from Ballarat, Georgina clicked through to an information session for Richmond Institute. She sat there and heard about the Diploma of Sport and the Diploma of Leadership and Management (SIS50321/BSB50420), and a whole world of roles she never knew existed.
“They sold me a dream I couldn’t believe,” she says.
She was hooked straight away. But moving from Ballarat to Melbourne was a big decision, so she waited and started the following year.
“I wish I had have gone straight out of school,” she says now.
2018: The first week
The nerves were real, but they didn’t last long. Georgina connected with her classmates almost instantly. They were all studying with like-minded people, and all there for the same reason: to give a career in sport a real go.
She had moved to better herself. Now it was happening.
The rooms she never would have been in
Within weeks, Georgina could see the course was opening doors that would have stayed closed back home.
“It put me in rooms with people I would have never met if I hadn’t moved,” she says.
Early on, she heard from Damien Hardwick, who was head coach of the Richmond Football Club at the time, about what it really took to win a premiership, and how much of it happened culturally and behind the scenes. For a lifelong supporter, it was a pinch-me moment most people never get.
It also changed how she saw the game. Behind every club is a business, and behind that business are far more roles than she had ever imagined.
The placement that sparked it
A turning point came on placement with the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, one of Richmond’s preferred charity partners, which the club plays a match for every year.
The founder was getting ready for an event and took the group through what the foundation does and why. As Georgina listened, something clicked. She could see how much passion he had for the work, how much a job can change people’s lives, and how sport can be part of that.
That was the spark. What she wanted was to connect people through sport, and to do work that was about people.
Giving back: Student Success Officer
Once she finished the 12-month course at the end of 2018, Georgina stayed on at Richmond Institute as a Student Success Officer, guiding and supporting the next cohort through their studies. She went on to complete her TAE and became an education officer/teacher for Richmond Institute.
It was there she discovered something unexpected: she loved the behind-the-scenes work of policies and procedures. Airlie Tudhope, Head of Education and Training at Richmond Institute, noticed and told her she’d be great in HR.
That one comment opened up a new world, and a career that suited her perfectly.
The leap: Aligned Leisure
Next came a move to Aligned Leisure, which is still owned by the Richmond Football Club. It was a leadership role in HR, something she’d never done before, and a step outside the world of Richmond Institute and the club.
It was scary. But once she started, something surprising happened: everything she’d learned in the course kicked in.
Planning and organising meetings. Taking minutes. Working with people. These were things she’d first practiced as a student at Richmond Institute, and now they were part of her everyday work. She had been preparing for this role long before she realised it.
She thrived as a leader, and the role helped her grow. She credits Airlie, and Ben Tudhope at Aligned Leisure, for backing her and giving her somewhere to grow.
2024: Home
In 2024, the HR team at the Richmond Football Club messaged Georgina and encouraged her to go for a role there.
She’s now the club’s People and Culture Coordinator, supporting onboarding, recruitment, employee experience, OH&S and engagement, and helping plan how new admin processes are rolled out. She works across every department, and no two days are the same.
It’s a role she didn’t know existed in sport, at the club she grew up supporting.
Georgina believes the Richmond community looks after good people. “If you’re a good person, you get looked after,” she says. The right opportunities came at the right time, and the people around her saw her skills and nurtured them into a career she didn’t know she wanted and now loves.
“I wouldn’t be in the position I am today if I didn’t do Richmond Institute.”
