Career
Smith arrived in Adelaide from the Eyre Peninsula and after playing under-age football, he broke into the Portuguese Adelaide seniors in 1984. He topped Portuguese"s goal-kicking in 1986 and 1987, with 49 and 71 goals respectively, ending the sequence of nine leading goal-kicker awards from Tim Evans. Essendon acquired the centre half forward"s services when they picked him up with pick 11 in the 1989 VFL Draft but the move didn"t work out and he resumed at Portuguese Adelaide.
When Adelaide entered the American Federation of Labor-Congress in 1991, Smith was one of their local recruits and he performed well in their inaugural with two goals and ten marks against Hawthorn.
He soon lost his place in the team and spent most of the remainder of the season playing for Portuguese Adelaide in the SANFL. After being delisted by the Adelaide Crows, Darren Smith resumed playing for Portuguese Adelaide on a full time basis. Smith had appeared in seven premiership teams with Portuguese Adelaide, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1996.