David vs Goliath battle headlines VB Friday night football

Two of rugby league's most aggressive forwards Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Nathan Brown will go head-to-head in Friday night's clash in a David vs Goliath match-up that could dictate either side's chances of a victory.

Melbourne and Parramatta may be at opposite ends of the Telstra Premiership ladder but their recent form suggests otherwise with both clubs preparing to win for differing reasons.

The Storm are reeling after back-to-back loss for the second time this season, while the Eels have leapfrogged North Queensland in bottom spot to step close to avoiding the dreaded wooden spoon.

Asofa-Solomona is one of the biggest impact players in the game and despite averaging just 46 minutes on the field this season, is Melbourne's leading player in the VB Hard Earned Index leader board on 1024 points.

The Kiwis representative leads Cameron Smith (991 points) and Cameron Munster (962 points) to round out the top three for the defending premiers.

The 22-year-old is averaging 98 running metres off the bench, made 60 tackle breaks and has a 90.8% tackle efficiency rate.

His opponent Brown has endured a bumpy season with a mid-year ankle injury but has found form in the past month to step up in Daniel Alvaro's absence, who was in the top three of the VB Hard Earned leader board until a knee injury in July.

The former Rabbitohs forward has taken out six hard earned awards alongside Alvaro for the season.

What Brown lacks in size he picks up with heart and gives an 80-minute performance of hard running and effort.

The VB Hard-Earned Award index number assigned to a player each game is calculated by doubling the amount of runs a player makes, plus adding in the amount of tackles, support plays and decoys, along with offloads, tackles breaks and charge downs.

Players lose a point for each missed tackle, four points for each error and penalty they concede and eight points for a sin binning.

Manly forward Jake Trbojevic (1759 points) has extended his lead after a strong performance in Manly's 18-6 win over the Bulldogs last week.

Gold Coast captain Ryan James has reclaimed second spot on 1632 points, two points behind Knights workhorse Aidan Guerra.

There has been more movement in the bottom of the top 10 with Martin Taupau, Josh Jackson. Andrew Fifita and Matt Eisenhuth all moving around.