IT WOULD be easyto ignore Adelaide's defenders in the club's 65-point belting of GreaterWestern Sydney on Sunday.
The Crows booted137 points with 10 separate goal kickers and the side's best player in PatrickDangerfield found form with 33 touches and five goals.
First-yearmidfielder Matt Crouch was just as prolific with 28 disposals before he wassubbed at three-quarter time.
But up againstone of the most intimidating forward lines in AFL football – featuring JeremyCameron and fellow No. 1 draft picks Jonathon Patton and Tom Boyd – defenders KyleHartigan, Daniel Talia and Sam Shaw thrived.
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The Crows'defensive trio has just 84 games between them – 59 of which are Talia's.
Yet they heldtheir opponents to three goals - two for Cameron, one for Patton, and none forBoyd on debut.
Sanderson describedtheir collective performance as an important marker for the club's future.
"Hartigan,Shaw and Talia were really important for us today. They probably won't get theaccolades externally, but internally those three players played a reallycritical role in us getting the win," he said.
"They'll sayit was helped by the pressure our midfielders created – the ball getting jackedforward than [with] time and space.
"But wecan't ask much more from those three young kids … Shaw, Hartigan and Taliahaven't played much so that's a really important step for us and ourfuture."
Sunday's game markedAdelaide's second win for the year and its first at Adelaide Oval.
But it wasn't theresult of some secret plan paying off, or weeks of training finally comingtogether coming. Sanderson said it was a simply a case of doing the littlethings well.
He saidcontrolling the play by executing football's simple skills had helped the Crowsdictate play.
"In generalwe've been able to win the basic, the fundamentals," he said.
"Contestedball, clearances, again this week the uncontested numbers were plus-80, so wewere able to get the ball on the outside of the contest – I think those numberswere reversed in the first three rounds.
"We'vecontrolled the tempo of the last two games we've played in, when we've wantedto go quick we've gone quick, when we've wanted to slow it down a little bitwe've been able to control that.
"In thefirst three rounds it felt like the opposition had control of the game and wewere chasing to get back into it.
"We've wonthe last eight quarters which is great … we've still got long way to go thoughwhen it comes to improving to the level we need to get to."
