IT WOULD be easy to ignore Adelaide's defenders in the club's 65-point belting of Greater Western Sydney on Sunday.

The Crows booted 137 points with 10 separate goal kickers and the side's best player in Patrick Dangerfield found form with 33 touches and five goals. First-year midfielder Matt Crouch was just as prolific with 28 disposals before he was subbed at three-quarter time after cramping.

But up against one of the most intimidating forward lines in AFL football – featuring Jeremy Cameron and fellow No. 1 draft picks Jonathon Patton and Tom Boyd – defenders Kyle Hartigan, Daniel Talia and Sam Shaw thrived.

The Crows' defensive trio has just 84 games between them – 59 of which are Talia's.

Yet they held their opponents to three goals - two for Cameron, one for Patton, and none for Boyd on debut.

Sanderson described their 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 the accolades externally, but internally those three players played a really critical role in us getting the win," he said.

"They'll say it was helped by the pressure our midfielders created – the ball getting jacked forward than [with] time and space.

"But we can't ask much more from those three young kids … Shaw, Hartigan and Talia haven't played much so that's a really important step for us and our future."

Sunday's game marked Adelaide's second win for the year and its first at Adelaide Oval.

But it wasn't the result of some secret plan paying off, or weeks of training finally coming together coming. Sanderson said it was a simply a case of doing the little things well.

He said controlling the play by executing football's simple skills had helped the Crows dictate play.

"In general we've been able to win the basic, the fundamentals," he said.

"Contested ball, clearances, again this week the uncontested numbers were plus-80, so we were able to get the ball on the outside of the contest – I think those numbers were reversed in the first three rounds.

"We've controlled the tempo of the last two games we've played in, when we've wanted to go quick we've gone quick, when we've wanted to slow it down a little bit we've been able to control that.

"In the first three rounds it felt like the opposition had control of the game and we were chasing to get back into it.

"We've won the last eight quarters which is great … we've still got long way to go though when it comes to improving to the level we need to get to."