The best line of the night arguably came from Merv Hughes.
“I feel sorry for the people around Australia that never met him,” he said, to the understanding nods of the tens of thousands in attendance.
Sitting in the Olympic Stand during the Shane Warne memorial, surrounded by mourners, you couldn’t help but feel that given the tragic circumstances, this was as fitting an end as possible to an unbelievable life.
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Partly solemn, but mostly irreverent and upbeat, it was quintessentially Warne.
I’ve always thought that the way we remember a person should reflect how and what we associated with them when they were alive, conventions be damned.
For some that might be a small group of people, sipping a whiskey around a fireplace with very little discussion.
For others, like a childhood friend I lost far too young, it’s a memorial service where the family instructed all the mourners to wear bright Hawaiian shirts, and a church so full that people spilled onto the street outside.
And for Warne, it had to be something like this. A stadium, his stadium, filled with adoring fans, drawing adulation not just from the cricketing world, but musicians, actors, athletes from other sports and whoever else.
The critics, albeit there aren’t many, keep wondering why there’s so much commotion over ‘a sportsman’, which is to miss the point entirely.
Warne was just a cricketer in the same way that The Beatles were just a band, or Picasso a mere painter.
The outpouring of grief, as well as this celebration of his life, proved that.
After all, what mere sportsman gets a shout-out from the United Nations? Or tribute songs from Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams and Chris Martin?
Despite the positives of the evening, it’s remained difficult to rationalise why this happened and why it’s hit so many people so hard.
But the reason it’s so jarring is because he had so much left to give.
Yes, nobody, maybe ever, lived a fuller life, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t brutally cut short.
I’m sure most of us expected to just read the news some time in the 2050s or 60s, and see that Warnie had smoked his last cigarette one night and simply not woken up the next. How can he be gone so soon?
It was only days before his passing that we heard rumours England was considering him for a coaching position, and it was only weeks prior that we’d revelled in Mitchell Starc proving the great man wrong with a brilliant Ashes.
But if you have to make the best of a bad situation, everyone involved here well and truly did.
From his family, to his former captains, rivals and teammates, to celebrity guests and his closest friends, the tributes flowed from all parts of Warne’s life.
His old mate Aaron Hamill joked on Tuesday that Warne would be filthy to be missing such a big party – and on Wednesday, he was proven right.
It was a privilege to be a part of 50,000-odd people holding their torch lights aloft, and to watch as his three children, just minutes after delivering stirring tributes, unveiled the newly named Shane Warne Stand.
Rest in peace, King. You were truly one of a kind.