MELBOURNE players will wear two black armbands during Saturday’s Round 1 clash with Port Adelaide at the MCG.

With the club tragically losing three much-loved figures over the off-season, the first armband will honour the lives of Ian Thorogood, Colin Sylvia and Alan Gardner.

Thorogood, the most recent to have passed this week at age 82, was a three-time premiership player for the Demons.

He totaled 93 games in his six-year career and was awarded Life Membership in 1983.

In October last year, former star Sylvia was involved in a fatal car accident in regional Victoria at just 32 years of age.

Another Life Member of the club, Sylvia played 163 AFL games – 157 of those with Melbourne before making a move to Fremantle for the 2014 season.

Former property steward Gardner received his Life Membership in 2002, and sadly passed away piror to Christmas.

Before his time at Melbourne, Gardner contributed largely to Footscray in the VFL during the early stages of his career.

The second black armband will be worn to recognise the victims of last week’s Christchurch terror attack, where 50 people tragically lost their lives.