Much-admired St Kilda star Lenny Hayes will have a kick-start to the next phase of his AFL life.

The league has announced he is the latest recipient of the Ron Evans Scholarship.

Hayes, who ended his 297-game playing career at the end of this season, will work at the AFL for a year.

The former midfielder started the posting on Monday and will work in areas such as player education and welfare, umpiring, laws of the game, commercial and media.

When Hayes announced his impending retirement in July, he said he wanted to stay involved in the game as a coach.

“I appreciate the opportunity provided by the Evans family to continue my involvement in Australian football,” Hayes said in an AFL statement.

“I want to learn as much as I can across the various parts of our game’s administration as I work out where I want to direct my energies.”

The scholarship was established to honour Evans, the former AFL Chairman who died of cancer seven years ago.

“He’ll unquestionably benefit the AFL industry as a whole and we look forward to him bringing valuable insight, leadership and knowledge to a host of programs across all levels of the game,” said AFL operations manager Mark Evans.