Don't jump the gun p26. I did all the visa work for Silverman, wright, ford, mandleblatt and there are serious issues with the entire process.
Sports visas are the correct way to go. They are the only visa that legally allows a person to specifically participate in sports as their primary reason for visiting. Problem. They take 6 weeks to get, need a very full on contract, need strong financial grounding by Vic parent club and also on behalf of the player. It's full paid sponsorship of the player. Problem for bv... Players are employed by the Vic club and can't play for aces. Problem for clubs, illegal work will get the player deported, clubs need to prove financial support.
Working holiday visa is easiest. 2 weeks to get, cheap, can work while over here. Problem... According to immigration law, a person on a W.H. Visa is only legally allowed to play 4 games of any one organized sport. If dept of immigration finds out - player deported, league and club fined heavily and as an organized sport (with state and fed governing bodies) the club is forced to forfeit championship points. I am not making this up! Immigration doesn't follow it up therefore bv are content to be ignorant, let clubs pay for exports and eat someone else's cake.
For a non national to be exempt from non national status and allowed to play 1s, bv need to approve. Problem is, if a player is deemed exempt it means a club can still elect another as their non national. Hence, a pottery course will unlikely be approved.
Injuries - even with a sports visa a non- nat needs to prove private health cover.
Solution - only one sport in this country has a labour agreement in line with it's sports visa, basketball. This labour agreement defines a club as the parent of the visa, the player is contracted to the club. LAgreement means the player can work outside the club but only with the clubs approval. This would cover part time work, aces etc.
I raised this 6 years ago with bv both by phone and email and got nothing back. Not interested in a labour agreement, not interested in knowing about immigration law and I kept the emails to cover my clubs behind. As they're happy to support illegal activity, they are open to the consequences, ignorance is never a strong defense.
So all those clubs getting non Nats on a working holiday visa, you are breaking federal immigration law. Simply put.