Melbourne insist the wave of catastrophes that have belted the AFL club this year will make them stronger, including the loss of a $1.9 million per year sponsorship.

The Demons cut ties with major sponsor EnergyWatch on Thursday, over a series of racist remarks published on Facebook by the energy broker’s co-founder and chief executive Ben Polis.

The A-League’s Melbourne Victory and Super Rugby’s Melbourne Rebels also dumped EnergyWatch as a sponsor.

The scandal also cost Polis his chief executive job, in what was described as a mutual decision with his EnergyWatch co-owner and co-founder Luke Zombor.

For the Demons, the sponsorship blow was the latest in a barely-imaginable series of unfortunate recent events.

Indigenous forward Liam Jurrah was charged in March over an alleged machete attack.

Then the club was thrown into mourning by the death of Demons great Jim Stynes.

And earlier this week, first-year coach Mark Neeld was forced to publicly confront untrue allegations that he had treated the club’s indigenous players differently to non-indigenous players.

At least, unlike death, criminal charges and fictional rumours of racial discrimination, the Demons were able to deal swiftly with the sponsorship saga.

Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab said it took “literally minutes” for a phone hook-up of board members on Thursday morning to agree to sever links with EnergyWatch, despite the financial impact.

“You can put no price on your club’s integrity,” Schwab told reporters.

Polis has admitted to statements attacking Aborigines, Asians, women and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

One such insulting Facebook entry followed Jurrah’s arrest.

Posted on Polis’ Facebook page was a photo of Jurrah, altered to picture him holding a machete.

“When he came to the Dees, they thought he had tribal tats, but it was ringworm. He had never been to a doctor in his life, he comes from out back bit past Carrum Downs,” the accompanying entry said.

Jurrah is from a remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory.

Polis’ string of other slurs included saying customers who signed up to his company on Christmas Day must be “Muslims and Jews”.

Another claimed Asian girls “add no value to society apart from insurance premiums cause they can’t drive”.

Schwab, whose club was already chasing a front-of-jumper sponsor, was hopeful the Demons’ principled stand would help them find new partners.

He said Melbourne were well-placed to withstand the financial impact, as they had turned a $5 million-plus debt several years ago into a current asset base of more than $6 million.

And he said the series of crises could have some more intangible benefits.

“If someone had actually tried to create this storyline at the start of the year, you would never have believed it,” Schwab said.

“But at the same time, you build strength into your organisation through going through these types of challenges together and I feel totally comfortable.”

Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro said his club also felt it had no choice but to sever their $400,000 sponsorship deal, given the A-League club’s proud engagement with a multicultural supporter base.

The prime minister described Polis’ comments as “nasty” and “disappointing”, while AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou called them “offensively outrageous”.