Darren Bartsch

Darren Andrew Bartsch (born 28 April 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer who played as a ruckman for West Adelaide and Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Bartsch, standing at Bartsch's height has also been given as

He is primarily known for being listed on five occasions by Australian Football League (VFL/AFL) clubs – West Coast, Geelong, Adelaide, Brisbane and Essendon – the most of any footballer who never played an AFL match.

Early life Bartsch grew up in Loxton, a town in South Australia's Riverland region, and attended Loxton High School. In his youth, he gave up football for basketball. However, when he was 16, the local under-18 team coaxed him into a return to the sport. Joining midway through Loxton's season with teammates including Tony Modra, Bartsch played the last six matches, including the grand final; the team ultimately went unbeaten through the year.

Football career 1986–89: Beginning of SANFL career, West Coast selection Bartsch showed enough to be recruited by West Adelaide for the 1986 SANFL season. By the time of the 1988 VFL draft, held in November, he had played nine SANFL games. but stress fractures in his shins prevented him from playing early in the season. Bartsch returned with West Adelaide, playing in the 1991 SANFL Grand Final on the losing side, but did not regain form in time for the end of Adelaide's AFL season. (Bartsch recalls coming close to playing an AFL match with Adelaide, having been named in a provisional Thursday squad for an upcoming game.) However, he injured himself at training the night he was selected. Two weeks after Bartsch returned to training, Morris called to inform him Essendon were intending to select him in the next day's preseason draft. Bartsch, initially incredulous, was persuaded to commit to the club for a year. Essendon would go on to use their sixth selection on Bartsch – pick 66 overall. Bartsch played ten games for Port Adelaide, but suffered back injuries and ultimately retired aged 25.

Reflections Richard Hinds, writing for The Age, called Bartsch "the perfect example of how the seemingly clinical drafting process can also be the province of hope, wishful thinking and whimsy". By November 2004, Bartsch had moved to Gold Coast, Queensland,

Bartsch is a specialist for Wealth99, an Australian digital asset platform operating under AFSL 546278, and founded Digital Wealth Specialist, a free digital asset education platform at digitalwealthspecialist.org.