THERE are players vitally important to your AFL team's fortunes whose impact generally transcends the stats sheet.

More often than not, those guys are the small defenders – the unheralded foot soldiers tasked with some of the toughest gigs in the game.

You won't find them at the top of the AFL app when you sort the disposals column. The glorified Rory Laird types aren't the ones under the spotlight this time.

Instead, think Nick Smith. Neville Jetta. Jarryn Geary. Jed Bews.

Even Brad Sheppard, who barely scrapes into this stringent definition, although fellow 186cmer Easton Wood doesn't because he generally plays on taller rivals.

Smith, who played in Sydney's 2012 flag, is the exception to the rule among small defenders when it comes to the All Australian team, being a deserved, against-the-flow selection in 2014.

"There's nothing wrong with being a back pocket," Smith once said.

His scalps that All Australian season included Eddie Betts, Dane Swan, Mark LeCras and Dale Thomas, as well as Hayden Ballantyne and Lindsay Thomas twice each.

They were Smith's stats that truly counted, but the hyper-analysis of the sport – translation: Champion Data – has made it easier to appreciate even the underappreciated.

A matrix of one-on-one contests defended, including whether the player won, lost or neutralised them, goals conceded, spoils, intercept marks and pressure acts probably gives you a pretty good insight.

But, footy nerds, welcome to 'expected player output for opposition player' (EXP).

Firstly, you need to know the times, they are a changin'. Where once 40 minutes spent on one opponent was common, it is now rare in the days of the team defence.

Kangaroo Marley Williams has the most of those length match-ups this season among small lockdown defenders with seven, from Jetta (six) and Sheppard and Darcy Byrne-Jones (both five).

However, what EXP does is indicate which footballers are given the big jobs most often, then the advanced statistics reveal how they perform in those situations.

In simple terms, the player's defensive rating is calculated by the difference in performance their opponent has on them compared to their EXP.

Drum roll. The competition's best small defender this year is (and it's not even close):

The scoring floodgates open

Six clubs did their bit at the weekend to silence the naysayers about the state of the modern game.

The Western Bulldogs (103 points) and Geelong (101) put on a Friday night stunner, before St Kilda (119) outlasted Melbourne (117) and Essendon (125) got the job done over North Melbourne (108) on Sunday.

It was the first time there were three games in the same round where each team scored at least 100 points since round 23, 2013.

Did the Crows resurrect their season?

Taylor Walker is a lightning rod for criticism and remains one of the most polarising figures in the game, but more performances like Saturday's should sway the doubters.

West Coast shot 27 points clear of Walker's Adelaide almost 24 minutes into the third term of a dour battle at Adelaide Oval, only for the under-fire Crows to rise to the occasion on their captain's back.

Another Adelaide home loss would have as good as stamped its 2018 papers. What came next could be the making of the Don Pyke-coached team's troubled campaign.

Walker went on to amass nine disposals, five marks, five score involvements and kick 3.2 from the point the Eagles achieved their game-high lead.

His Crows earned a 12.16 (88) to 12.6 (78) triumph to close to within one win of the top eight ahead of a tricky run home.

Melbourne's leaky defence

The Demons have been a statistical phenomenon in many categories this year, but one failing could doom their flag hopes.

Sunday's defeat to St Kilda again exposed one of Melbourne's greatest flaws: scores conceded from opposition inside 50s.

Only the Saints and Carlton rank worse than Simon Goodwin's Demons in that area.

Just two premiers since 2000 have finished outside of the top eight for this statistic (Port Adelaide, ninth, 2004 and Hawthorn, 14th, 2008).

HOW THE CURRENT TOP EIGHT FARES