A six-foot, seven-inch gap has been left in the lives of millions.

But for all the people Jim Stynes has touched in a life of immense personality, astounding footballing feats and even greater community impact, the greatest loss will be felt by a family.

His widow Sam said she wanted to wake from her bad dream and his brother spoke of their broken-hearted parents.

Their loss cannot be matched. But at least it was shared.

St Paul’s Cathedral in central Melbourne was packed to its 1200 capacity and thousands more stood across the road in Federation Square to remember Stynes at his state funeral on Tuesday.

They remembered the skinny Irish teenager who came to Australia as an experiment and became the best player in the AFL.

They also remembered a selfless man who devoted his life to helping young people.

And they heard about the prototype big brother – a father figure, fun, generous, loving, caring.

“He leaves a six foot seven gap in our lives that will always be empty,” younger brother Brian Stynes told mourners.

“He was an inspiration to us all and we couldn’t have a better son, brother and uncle. I tried following in his footsteps but they were always too big.”

Brian told the congregation tales of a middle class family’s life in Dublin’s southern suburbs.

He recalled their family of eight sharing a warm, loving, noisy, busy and eccentric three bedroom house in Rathfarnham.

He shared a bed and a passion for sport with his big brother.

And shared his big brother with the rest of his family. “We all adored him.”

As a boy in Rathfarnham, Stynes brought people together, just as he did in his later life in Melbourne.

He organised the family and the neighbourhood, Brian said, with unflagging energy and a remarkable ability to include everyone.

“We all wanted to be with Jim.”

And so it was decades later on the other side of the world.

His parents, two younger brothers and three little sisters were devastated when he left Dublin aged 18 to give Australian Rules a try, Brian said.

Their loss was Australia’s gain.

“What I find most amazing of all is that of all the kids from around the world we could have attracted to the game … we found him, Jim Stynes,” his former Melbourne teammate Gary Lyon said in his eulogy.

“And as a result we may now never question the boundaries of what one man is capable of achieving on the playing field but also never question the ability of the same man to have that same impact away from it.

“There never has been anyone like Jim Stynes and there never will be, which is why we loved him and we miss him so much today.”

When assessing his qualities as a footballer, Lyon also saw the person.

“Consistent, reliable, dependable, trustworthy, honest, strong, loyal, durable, courageous, caring and resilient,” Lyon said of Stynes.

“They are wonderful qualities to possess in a footballer. They’re even more significant qualities to possess as a man.”

And those qualities were remembered in a fitting example of how Stynes continues to bring people together, even after his death to cancer last week.

Street kids mingled in the imposing cathedral with many of Stynes’ old teammates and opponents, AFL heavyweights, politicians and dignitaries.

Across the road, Melbourne fans in red and blue mourned in silence as they watched proceedings on big screens with supporters of all AFL clubs and even more of the young people whose lives Stynes had changed.

Film director Paul Currie, with whom Stynes co-founded the Reach Foundation, said the Irishman had personally spoken to well over 200,000 troubled young people, instilling in them a belief that nothing in their lives was too difficult to overcome.

Currie called him a prophet and a warrior poet.

“We all wanted to be like Jim.”

And Stynes’ wife Sam spoke of how many people had been influenced by her husband’s “gentleness and passion for life”.

Sam said she hoped to click her heels and wake from a bad dream.

“It’s not the case,” she said.

“Jim wanted me to speak today. I would not wish to avoid that responsibility.”

She read the poem Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep, by Mary Elizabeth Frye.

She said the poem reflected her husband’s wishes for her, their children Matisse and Tiernan, and for all who loved him.

It may be a wish they find hard to fulfil.