Darren Milburn Biography

Adelaide defence coach Darren Milburn has quit the club to return home to Victoria.

"Darren (Milburn) has played a crucial role in fostering our current crop of defenders," head of football David Noble said.

"There is no doubt Daniel Talia, Kyle Hartigan, Jake Lever and Jake Kelly among others have benefited from his knowledge and advice."

Geelong's retired dual premiership player Darren Milburn will be an assistant coach for the Adelaide Crows.

"I have played with and coached Darren for many years now. He has a great football brain and will be able to pass on a lot of this knowledge to our young backline players," Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said.

"I am very pleased to be able to continue our strong relationship."

After two premierships and playing in more wins than any other Geelong player, Darren Milburn retires.

"I am grateful to my teammates, coaches and everyone that has been with the club during my time here," Milburn said.

"The supporters have always been behind me and the team, and that has made it a fantastic experience. I will take away great memories that I have been able to share with my closest friends."

Geelong coach Chris Scott says omitting defender Darren Milburn from the side that played in the qualifying final against Hawthorn was a difficult decision.

"We've had an incredibly large group of contributors this year and Darren's been a huge part of that and we think he is going to play a role this year still," Scott said.

"But more than that he has been an absolute great of the club. It's extremely difficult but one of the great strengths of the players down at Geelong is they always put the team first and 'Dasher' typifies that."

Geelong football manager Neil Balme says there is no friction within the club over the re-signing of Darren Milburn and David Wojcinski.

"While you can debate when blokes should retire, we're extremely happy for both Darren and David to play on," he told SEN Radio.

"We want them to stay, they want to stay, and we've got to make the most of it."

Geelong veteran Darren Milburn suffered a hamstring injury in the club's round-one victory over Essendon and will miss at least two weeks.

Geelong's narrow loss to St Kilda takes a heavy toll with four of the Cats' premiership players to miss this week.

Matthew Scarlett, Cameron Ling, Darren Milburn and James Kelly have all been sidelined.

The loss of All-Australian defenders Scarlett and Milburn has opened the door for 19-year-old Tom Gillies to make his debut, while Ryan Gamble, David Wojcinksi and Tom Lonergan come back into the side.

Scarlett has back tightness, Ling has knee tendonitis, Milburn rolled his ankle and Kelly was left out after pulling up this week with a tight hamstring. Kelly and Scarlett are expected to return for the round 16 game against Melbourne, while the club last night said Ling's condition would be monitored over the next week.

Geelong is poised to bring Steve Johnson, Cam Mooney and Darren Milburn back for this Saturday's quarter-final clash with Port Adelaide.