You have come half way around the world, there’s no money in it, and some of the rinks are colder and dingier than the worst when you played juniors. You’ve just copped a puck to the face, a stick to the groin, an elbow to the neck, and you are feeling them all. You’ve had three breakaways this period in which the goalie was a wall and you can sense the chatter: “He’s not so good ... that import for ... (insert Australian Ice Hockey League team’s name here) is better - he’s scoring two points per game.” The coach thinks you are coasting, and you are starting to wonder if he is right. Your team is not the juggernaut it was advertised to be and there’s local kids not getting ice time who resent you. The team suits up a skeleton crew for road trips because guys can’t get off work or have to be with family or something, so you’re pulling triple shifts and getting hammered. You can’t complain about anything because everyone is a volunteer doing their best and without them there is no hockey at all here. Hardly anyone knows hockey exists in this big, forbidding country. They’re all obsessed with rugby, and Aussie rules, whatever that is. You have only glanced at the great beaches you know lurk at the edge of some of these big, busy cities. It’s so expensive. "Why did I come here?" you ask yourself. You are sore and homesick and lonely.

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This is the best thing you have ever done in your career, in your life. You didn’t even know there was hockey in Australia a few months ago, and here you are, travelling the country - in airplanes, not buses, like back home - and bonding with this great bunch of guys who put in like troopers despite being completely unpaid. Hell, some of them even pay to play. Once you showed you were down to earth and prepared to work hard, they accepted you like a brother. You’re having a ball on and off the ice with a bunch of mates you will keep for the rest of your life. The hockey is competitive and the support from the fans is passionate, you really want to bring home this championship, but it’s not life and death, everything is in perspective. The road trips are a hoot, with the guys super-relaxed in between games but super-focused when the time comes to play. You can have a beer and a laugh, and see Australia ... you have stayed over in some towns a couple of times and Thailand are New Zealand are a hop away. Some of the rinks are like a throwback to your childhood, dingy and rough, but that’s part of the romance of the whole thing. Would the stories you will tell at home be as good if all these teams played out of sterile plastic barns? The atmosphere in Canberra was awesome. You are having the time of your life, that bit of coaching you do is helping you meet lots of really friendly Aussies, and that footy game they took you to was nuts. There’s no money, but you don’t get treated like a piece of meat like in minor-pro. You can really settle into your team and make a contribution, help hockey grow in this growing league. There’s a real sense of the sport going places here right now, and you are doing your bit. You are having so much fun you might see if there’s a way you can come back next year...

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Playing as an import in the AIHL is, to a large extent, what the individual makes of it.

Every AIHL club now assesses character as much as talent when choosing their imports, a difficult job even in the days of Skype and YouTube. Mustangs director of hockey Andy McDowell found a mug shot of one prospective player while performing a routine google background search!

To a large extent, whether the person on the other end of the line is up to the challenge is uncertain until they are living it.

There is pressure to perform in the AIHL, but nothing so troubling for players who are used to the brutal uncertainty of pro hockey, where even a well-performed player can be traded or cut at any time.

These days, clubs want more than a star player. They want a role model, someone happy to teach as well as play, as good off the ice as on. They need someone who wants to embrace the Australian hockey experience, warts and all, as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Local Mustangs defenceman Troy Robertson puts it simply. No matter how good your numbers, no one is going to be impressed if you are not a good bloke. “We’re Aussies,” he says. “It doesn’t how much money you have earned or how good a player you are.”

The imports who are smart or humble enough to grasp this fundamental non-negotiable get loyal support. Those who are aloof or seek a pedestal will have a less fulfilling six months down under.

Ontario-born Adelaide Adrenaline forward Brett Liscomb says it can get to be a “very, very long season” if an import does not enjoy his time in Australia, bridging the gap between demanding professional stints.

He is grateful for bye weekends when he can get away from the rink and see the country. “You have to be in it for the friendships, the camaraderie, everything apart from the hockey,” he says.

Liscomb, who plays for the Fayetteville FireAntz in the Southern Professional Hockey League in the United States, played for Adrenaline in 2012, and returned this season primarily because of the close friendships he formed with members of that team.They all love the game, but do not talk hockey away from the rink.

Liscomb is setting up skills sessions for juniors every Wednesday at 7.15am. A budding hockey coach, he gives back to the South Australian hockey community while furthering his mentoring skills. Then he gets out and experiences the rest of Australia.

Towering Melbourne Ice defenceman Jeff Smith is a poster-child import. Determined to see as much of the world as possible through his sport, he has now played in five countries and hopes to add France to the list next year.

In Canberra, when abused by the infamous "Hecklers", he laughed and made rejoinders. When players had to wait amid the packed crowd for their dressing room door (in the male toilets) to be opened, a potentially dangerous situation, he conversed with fans, and joked with a burly Canberra Brave fan dressed in a tiger suit.

In Perth, he demanded team management get the autograph of the pre-match entertainer "badpiper", a punk bagpipes player whose bag spewed flames. In fact, Smith does not ever spend too much time behind closed doors, coming out to see what the rink, team, city has to offer between periods.

In some leagues overseas he is paid to be an enforcer. In Australia, where clubs play under amateur rules, which heavily penalise fighting, Smith resists overtures to fisticuffs, and has even taken up a role in front of the net on the powerplay, relishing playing as a forward for the first time “since he was six”.

He was the ebullient talent used in a video shoot at Ice training, a go-pro camera attached to his helmet. His signature comment as he sped around the rink: “God, I love hockey!” It shows - to his club and teammates as well as fans.

Most of the imports like to catch up, sometimes even during games. Before one face-off during the first Adrenaline/Mustangs game last weekend, Stangs utility Jeff Grant (Louisiana Icegators) and Liscomb could be seen in conversation.

Liscomb has plenty of other chats to come - he will combat fellow FireAntz Corey Toy (Perth Thunder) and John Clewlow (Sydney Ice Dogs) this season, and there are many other SPHL alumni in AIHL ranks. Another FireAnt, Jeff Martens, scored 67 points for the Newcastle North Stars last season.

Grant says that professional hockey is a very small world and word gets around quickly about the outposts of the game worth visiting. In 2014’s AIHL, the SPHL grapevine is working overtime, as is the Swedish network.

There are horror stories about wild imports who did not cope with their comparatively humble stature in Australia. With the league becoming more demanding of its participants, dissolute party animals now need not apply.

There is a reason why some minor-pro players can’t cope in the amateur environment. Mustangs forward Joey Hughes has lived the SPHL lifestyle with Pensacola Ice Flyers. He says you have to be “cunning” to survive in that cut-throat environment, where promises are ambit claims and hundreds of talented players wait to take your position if negotiations break down.

In some instances, players are protected from their misdemeanours by club officials, in the manner of VFL footy stars a generation ago in Melbourne. Speeding tickets get taken care of, drunken or drugged escapades are excused, individuals do not learn to take responsibility for their actions.

The existence of stars who are both arrogant and insecure, and the desperation of pro players to go up the hockey food chain, means a hard-working Aussie can get ahead. Joey says he was first on and last off the ice at training when playing pro. The simple antipodean ploy of working hard made an impact and kept him ahead of the milling pack.

It works just as well for star imports coming to Australia.

They can have a huge impact on local youngsters. Often, prospective AIHL locals are used to being the star player, depended upon, getting plenty of ice time. Suddenly, at AIHL level, some of these youngsters have to fight for their place for the first time, and adjust to alien, team-oriented roles.

In a pro environment, there would be little sympathy for them, as scores of options would be available. If their attitude did not improve, they would be cut.

In the Australian, amateur environment, where some players pay to play, that balance of power is shifted. Adrenaline coach Ryan O’Handley says the only “collateral” an AIHL coach has is ice time.

There is no pay to dock, no team to trade with.

Sometimes a coach does not even have ice time to bargain with. The amateur player has the threat to quit at his disposal, after all.

Ideally, an import can help inspire, rather than alienate such malcontents.

An ideal import is talented yet humble; unselfish but self-reliant; mature but fun; dedicated yet gregarious.

Little wonder that the players who enjoy their Australian hockey experience have a big impact. They are pretty special individuals.