BIO

Darren Loffler was born on 9 February 1976 and educated at the Good Shepherd Primary School and later at Concordia College.
 
He began his football career with the Greenacres Football Club, winning premierships at under 13 and under 15 levels. He also played for the North Adelaide youth development squads, before moving to Norwood (as per SANFL zone) midway through 1991, and playing in the Redlegs under 17 premiership. Earlier in the season Loffler had represented  South Australia in the state schoolboys under 15 championships held in Canberra, and had gained All-Australian selection.
 
After playing six games in his first season of under 17's, Loffler added another 10 in 1992, and made 11 appearances for the under 19's. In 1993, continuing his progression through the Norwood ranks, Loffler  played 13 games for the under 19's and five for the reserves. During the season he represented SA in the National under 17 Teal Cup competition.
 
Loffler made his league debut in round 22, 1994 - Norwood going down to West Adelaide at Richmond by two points. He played another three league games for the year, including  the elimination final and first semi-final. He also took out the best and fairest award in the reserves (19 games). Only 18 years of age at the time, he appeared destined for a long career at league level.
 
In 1995 he played 20 games in the reserves and was an important member of the team that went on to defeat South Adelaide in the grand final. The previous week he had also played in the under 19's flag.
 
Loffler played another 23 games for the reserves (runners-up) in 1996, and 14 the following year, before he was injured and required a knee reconstruction.
 
He rates 1998 as his favourite year of football - successfully coming back from serious injury, and then winning the reserves premiership with a great group of mates. Named at full back in Norwood's 19 point Grand Final victory against Port Adelaide, he made 16 appearances for the year.
 
After another full season of reserves football in 1999, Loffler played four league games in 2000 with Neville Roberts as coach. These games included the Anzac Day clash against Sturt on the Adelaide Oval : 16.11 to 11.4 and the win at The Parade against Port Adelaide : 17.9 to 10.15.
 
A great clubman, Loffler played 132 games of reserves football for the Redlegs.
  
He then joined the Uraidla Districts Football Club (Hills Football League) where he had an amazing run of success. His career with Uraidla saw him play 328 games (2001-2017), captain the side from 2006 to 2015, play in 11 grand finals, and win five premierships.
 
He returned to The Parade as a line coach for the reserves in 2015-2016, and in 2017 coached the Uraidla B team.
 
Off the field, he was a member of the infamous "Unregistered Dogs" rock band which played many shows at the old Redlegs Club, player functions, and Alma Hotel  between 1994 and 1999 which included the likes of Garry McIntosh and many other big names over the years. The band then morphed into "Fastlake" in 2000 which also featured former Redlegs Scott Borlace, Matthew Dawes and Ben Wilson

R Cialini March 2019