2 at Champ
1 at Div 1
0 at Div 2

Div 2 should only be about developing your home grown players.

Often a D2 import is an important part of developing a smaller club, junior engagement, camps, crowds etc.

Out of interest, what would an import get paid for a season of BigV? Presumably they are also given a job, connected to the club, or do some coaching / clinics.

An import is generally a minimum of 20k.
That's not taking into account a job such as a development officer, holiday camps and so forth.

Melbourne Boy makes great point. And a quality 'off the court' import' can make a huge difference.

Joe Davis at Pakenham is a brilliant example.

it's the haves and have nots - teams that spend the $ usually win / can buy a title. Whilst it's an amateur comp any pro or part time pro is going to stand out and be better. See it all the time in our comp - club gets on board with big $ sponsors, buys the talent and bingo - title town. Just need to buy better than the competition. This year - a club middle of the road - buys a couple of key players mid season - rest is history. Everyone loves a winner all the members love the club's brand of winning and being the best = way more support and more $ coming in.

How many Div 2 imports have changed a program long term? How many have made an impact to juniors long term to make a change to the senior program?

Div 2 teams don't want to stay in div 2. Div1 team don't want to stay in Div 1. The only way to move up is to win. You don't win developing juniors. Juniors don't want to play Div 1 and 2 either. They want to play youth and NBL1. So imports are good to fill the gaps and help a club get to a higher division so those juniors your talking about developing get to play in a higher standard and more competitive competition.

depends what is in the imports contract - working with junior players may be stipulated. Regardless everyone likes a winner and identifies stronger with a winning club.

Get rid of U20s and introduce a DIV 3 with a focus on player development.

DIV 1 and DIV 2 can continue to have imports so local players get a better feel for the standards required.

Introducing DIV 3 also creates an additional pathway for players coming out of U18s who are still developing and are not quite ready for higher levels of Big V.

Karma, What you are describing is youth league. Instead of more teams have less less, get rid of the onion.

International imports in a third tier competition. It is easy to argue that they add quality to the competition. However, It could also be argued that they take away opportunities for local players to participate and compete.

The ability to have import players and Journeyman players also creates a opportunity to load the team and "purchase a championship"
In my opinion, kind of defeats, the purpose of having a club based program. Especially where it requires funding from the junior program to sustain its operation.

Maybe the question should be what is the purpose of the BigV competition? If it is a state based intra club/Association competition, then, surely it should be played by players from that Association, or had a long-term linkage to that Association.