That time in Australia was 9.25pm in Greenwich Mean Time and Drury was the commentator for the opening match of the English Premier League season between Arsenal and Leicester City.

Barely audible above 59,387 delirious fans, most still cheering the seventh goal of a pulsating match, Drury lamented: “Premier League where have you been all this time?”

He then added this: “We had a terrific Open golf championship up in Southport, some wonderful Test cricket, Wimbledon fortnight was super, the world’s best athletes are still here in London, terrific sport but do you know what? Give us the Premier League.”

In one sentence he summed up both a national ethos and the priorities of national newspaper sports editors.

If cricket is king in India, rugby rules New Zealand and either AFL or NRL dominates Australia – depending on your state of origin –  there is no doubt the sport of choice in England.

Drury’s gushing tribute to the round-ball circus was just about justified.

“Glorious chaos, that's how we love it best,” he said of the contest which at that point sat perilously at 4-3 to the home side with five minutes to play.

“A game that swung more than any general election campaign, first blue then red.”

In fact it was red, then neither, then blue, then neither again, then blue again, then neither again, then red again.

Drury then put himself in the shoes of those national newspaper sports editors, pondering how you would angle the reporting of such a multi-faceted fluctuating contest.

Was the biggest story of the night a goal inside two minutes of his debut from Arsenal’s new record £52 million (that’s $86 million) summer signing Alexandre Lacazette; the brilliance of England striker Jamie Vardy to put Leicester ahead and the associated unrest of Arsenal’s demanding supporters; the sublime intervention of manager Arsene Wenger, whose two substitutes, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud, had both scored inside three minutes to restore the Gunners’ lead … “or is there still a headline to write?”

Ultimately there wasn’t, they had to settle for one of the above as Drury summed up the night’s proceedings with the observation: “It's like a cup tie with 37 more to play.”

Accustomed to playing a support role after a Liverpool career in the shadow of club legends Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson, Drury’s co-commentator Jim Beglin suggested the overall story of the night was of Premier League unpredictability.

He was right, unpredictability had indeed been the most enticing of qualities to the contest.

And it continued throughout the round.

The next day, reigning champion Chelsea, which had won 19 of 21 home games last season and possessed the best opening day record in EPL history, hosted a Burnley side that won once away all last season.

Before the game had reached halfway, Burnley fans could be heard chanting: “We want four.”

It was the first time Chelsea had conceded three goals in an EPL first-half and – despite a late nine-man resurgence – the first time since 1981 that a reigning top-flight champion had lost a home season-opener.

Elsewhere around the country, Wayne Rooney summed up the romance of the competition by scoring the winner on his return home to Everton thus providing perhaps the only time “Wayne Rooney” and “romance” have been used in the same sentence. 

Meanwhile, Watford snatched an injury-time goal to share a 3-3 draw with Liverpool, relegation favourite Huddersfield briefly topped the table, Manchester United hammered the Hammers and my beloved Brighton may have only lost 2-0 to title favourite Manchester City but was so far out of its depth as to be in Mariana Trench territory.

The EPL is celebrating its 25th year.

According to Mr Wikipedia, it is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people.

Aside from one-season wonders Blackburn and Leicester, only four sides have won the league, with Manchester United claiming more than half the 25 titles.

This would suggest the exact opposite of Beglin’s claims of unpredictability.

But all the while it continues to produce the sort of storylines from the opening weekend players like Paul Pogba will continue to earn £290,000  (that’s only $480,000) a week, English national newspaper readers will have to turn up to a dozen pages to find any other sport and commentators like Drury will share their unashamed affection with millions of complete strangers.