"I had a few drinks and with every drink I kept thinking, 'Oh, maybe I should just go to the World Cup..."

Postecoglou is deciding to release the details of that fateful night in Sydney piece by piece, slowly completing a confusing jigsaw puzzle that it appears he, himself, is still working on.

Speaking to BBC World Football, thousands of kilometres away from the emotion and scrutiny of the Australian media, a relaxed, even jovial sounding Postecoglou said he had decided to resign from the national team much earlier than previously revealed.

"It was probably 12 months in the making and in the final six-months of qualification I was pretty much resigned to it," the 52-year-old said.

"Towards the tail-end of qualifying, just before the Confederations Cup, I got the sense that I was becoming more frustrated with aspects of what I was doing than enjoying it.

"I knew that once the role was done it was time for me to move on and grow, go to the World Cup with a different voice in their head.

(The match against Honduras) was a tough night. Internally there was a lot of self satisfaction. You create a bond with the players and I wanted them to be happy, but I was thinking this is probably the last time I'll get to work with them.

"I had a few drinks and with every drink I kept thinking, 'Oh, maybe I should just go to the World Cup, because you enjoy working with people and see people having success and I wanted to be part of that.

"I was leaving on my own terms. There was some relief and some satisfaction, but that came later."

Perhaps more revealing than the indecisiveness within Postecoglou's inner-monologue was his inability to tell his players, many of whom he had brought into the Socceroos set up from relative unknowns. 

The interviewer pushes him on exactly what he said to the players that night in Sydney, and for a second Postecoglou falls silent. 

"I didn't tell them. I couldn't to be honest," Postecoglou said.

"With international football as it is, the players were on the plane the next evening, and I didn't make the public announcement until a few days later.

"I had a couple of quick conversations with the players that night, just did the usual bit of telling them to keep healthy until the next camp.