JIM Geraghty, a successful businessman and pillar of the Cronulla Sharks rugby league club, enjoyed a laugh until the end.
Before his death on October 9 at 83, he was visited in Kareena Private Hospital by his GP and long-time friend Peter Malouf.
Dr Malouf, who was the Sharks club doctor for many years, tried to reassure Mr Geraghty and said he had never told him a lie.
"Yes you have," Mr Geraghty replied. "You told me the Sharks would win a premiership before I died."
Mr Geraghty's son, Peter, who related the story, said it summed up what people loved about his father.
"Dad was a very positive man but was realistic and had a sense of humour," he said.
"He was a humble man and avoided the limelight but was kind, generous and did a lot for people."
Born in Balmain, James Geraghty was seven when his father died as a result of war service, leaving his mother to bring up seven children.
He went on to marry Carmel and the couple bought a house at Como, a place his mother said was "somewhere you only went on holidays".
Mr Geraghty opened a tyre retailing business, Straight Talk Tyre People, at Taren Point in the mid-1960s.
During the next 18 years he developed a network of 23 outlets before selling the business to Beaurepaires.
His company sponsored the Sharks and bankrolled the Southside Open surfing classic at Cronulla which included the world's first night competition.
Mr Geraghty was a Sharks club director for many years; he formed the ways and means committee which helped the club survive financially tough times.
The committee introduced the annual grand final luncheon in 1979 and Mr Geraghty attended each one until illness prevented him to do so this year.
He was instrumental in bringing English star Roger Millward to the club in 1976; the families remained close friends.
Jim Geraghty is survived by his wife Carmel, five children and their families including 15 grandchildren.
A requiem Mass was celebrated on Wednesday at St Catherine Laboure Catholic Church, Gymea.
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