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"I was not the boss" - Ben Polis article

The Chazz
The Chazz
in Melbourne Demons

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At the risk of opening old wounds, and am happy for mods to lock the thread if deemed appropriate, but just finished reading this article on The Age website...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/i-was-not-the-boss-polis-tells-court-20120628-215fl.html

An interesting comment made by Polis, ''As much as everybody thought I was CEO and founder … what people don't actually realise is that in the period Jan to November 2011, I was not running the business, I was told to stay at home. The reason 'CEO' was next to my name was so I could talk to the media about it. But I was not running the business, I was the spokesperson.''

I was at a MFC function in August 2011 where Polis attended, which wasn't that long after the Energy Watch deal was announced. As you could imagine, he was the White Knight in the room, and was treated accordingly. I had a brief conversation with him - it's amazing the crap that can be going on in a persons life, yet on the surface appear to be living the dream. It would appear a pregnant nun would be safer than this bloke at the moment.

While we have discussed/debated the whole "what was Schwab thinking", and the above paragraph/quote highlights that the would've been some serious concerns raised over his business dealings, it is credit to the MFC for how they handled the whole saga this year, and that we've come out of it, in my opinion, a better Club. I'm sure all involved have learnt some valuable lessons, which will only hold us in good shape for the future. Now let's go about building our brand so that it is truly worth $1.9m a year to advertise on the back of our jumper.

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    It was BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS THE GUY (oops sorry) the guy was a fly by night nutter. We were simply desperate.

    No-one can honestly say "gee we were surprised".

    As for Polis, he is involved in a court case and will say what he has to.

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    Like the $cully episode this is another bullet we dodged.We have escaped both with some good will and better candidates.Be thankful for both.

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    Like the $cully episode this is another bullet we dodged.We have escaped both with some good will and better candidates.Be thankful for both.

    I wouldn't say we dodged the polis bullet. we got a nasty flesh wound and was saved from worse injury when he shot himself in the foot

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    It was BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS THE GUY (oops sorry) the guy was a fly by night nutter. We were simply desperate.

    No-one can honestly say "gee we were surprised".

    As for Polis, he is involved in a court case and will say what he has to.

    Yep, obvious. That's why so many groups (us, rebels, victory etc etc) got involved...

    oh wait!

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    Yep, obvious. That's why so many groups (us, rebels, victory etc etc) got involved...

    oh wait!

    I don't know Tim. I went to the president's lunch where it was announced they were our sponsor (the GC game). He gave a short speech and a bit of an interview then swanned around a bit. I said to my mate i was with that there was something totally wrong about this guy. Definite nutter material.

    For example he said in his speech that he actually barracked for the Bulldogs and banged on about it. No probs about barracking for the dogs but why would you say in front of a room full of dees fans when you just become the major sponsor? Also his whole energy and body language was weird, quite aggressive in vibe and very macho

    As i said i called it then and was not surprised when he unravelled (i didn't know jack about him btw ie wasn't aware of his ADHD or back story)

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    I wouldn't say we dodged the polis bullet. we got a nasty flesh wound and was saved from worse injury when he shot himself in the foot

    I heard early rumours re:original sponsors abillty to cough up said figures.With overdue and outstanding payments I think we did dodge a bullet.Because of our stance the good will earnt us reliable sponsors.But that is just IMHO.

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    I heard early rumours re:original sponsors abillty to cough up said figures.With overdue and outstanding payments I think we did dodge a bullet.Because of our stance the good will earnt us reliable sponsors.But that is just IMHO.

    well let's say we dodged the second bullet and ended up in damage control rather than disaster

    make no mistake polis did us damage, fortunately many other clubs and organisations were also damaged which helped a little in deflecting the damage

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    well let's say we dodged the second bullet and ended up in damage control rather than disaster

    make no mistake polis did us damage, fortunately many other clubs and organisations were also damaged which helped a little in deflecting the damage

    Spot on DC this was a disaster waiting to happen.

    Just for once the MFC lucked out.

    He shot himself in the foot first.

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