“I played two games in the UEFA Europa League qualification rounds. We went to Ukraine to play Olexandriya and we also faced a team from Azerbaijan [Zira FK]," he said.

“These games were midweek. It was similar to the Asian Champions League. There was a lot of traveling. To Baku in Azerbaijan there was no direct flight, and if there was, my club didn’t organise it properly.

“The lack of organisation was ridiculous. We went to the airport and the club hadn’t sorted our visas.

“So there we were lining up at the airport, giving them our passports, then we had to fill in forms. There was confusion and the team manager was trying to fill in other forms. 

“The club had to pay on the spot for the costs, and then there was a misunderstanding with passports for foreign boys who were listed as Romanian.

“Despite that, the football was good because every club had ambitions of making the UEFA Europa League group stage. You’re put in the best hotels, facilities were all good.”

The ex-Jets star says he was bullied 'big time' in Romania

But in the end, Poljak’s new club didn’t qualify for the group stage. That’s when he says it got nasty.

“They brought me in with the ambitions of making it. I signed a two-year deal," he said. "Once we didn’t make it, it was an ugly departure. It was very ugly from there. 

“They said they weren’t going to pay out my contract.

“If I was there on my own by myself, I’d say, ‘OK, let’s fight. We’ll see’, because, I can handle a lot of stuff.

"You can try and torture me, I can handle it. Mentally I can handle it. But I went there [to Romania] with my wife and daughter. At the time, my daughter was eight or nine months old.

“For my family to go through something like that, it wasn’t worth it.

“A week or two after failing to qualify I got an injury. I was just getting back into training, preparing for the next game, and they called me to say you’ve got a meeting with the club.

“I had no idea what it was for. They said the ambition was to qualify for UEFA Europa League. 'We didn’t make it. And we can’t afford you anymore,' they said.

“And of course, I wanted to make it for myself. That’s the reason I went there. I didn’t go there because I loved Romanian football. I went there to play UEFA Europa League and then get somewhere better.

"I was shocked when they told me, but what do you do?

“In the contract was a sign-on fee. They did pay that, but then after I got basically nothing for six to eight weeks. None of the boys got paid. No-one.

“It was always, ‘Next week, next week’. Those cheap lines they throw at you.

“Boys there had families and I came from the other side of the world.

“I got a call from my landlord saying the club hadn’t paid him for two months for the apartment. He said, 'Do you want to pay instead?' I said, 'No chance, they haven’t paid me either!' 'You have until Friday to get out,' the landlord said.

“Did I really want to stay in Romania without getting paid? I had enough contacts with lawyers and I contacted the PFA in Australia and they were very helpful straight away. They really helped on a daily basis.

“And I got involved with my lawyer in Croatia too. He had dealt with Croatian players who had issues in Romania before.”

Soon, Poljak says he started getting threats.