1 It’s the first set of byes on the fixture, save Port and Gold Coast’s time off for their China sojourn. It’s something of a throwback to the days of the 12-team VFL, except every match is on TV. And even in reduced portions, this round contains some intriguing matches, as well as another of these fast-catching on Thursday night games.

2 Red-letter date of this weekend is definitely Cats-Crows on Friday at Simonds, the old Dangerfield Bowl, as an American might describe it. It’s also looms as a key checkpoint for this season – when the story of 2017 is told, it’s highly possible that this match will be referenced as a turning point for Adelaide or Geelong, in either direction. For league-leading Adelaide, which really got back on course with its destruction of Fremantle last week, there’s an added intrigue – this is the Crows’ toughest road test of the season by far, and it’s taken until almost midway through the year. As we noted in our preseason preview (with an assist from Matter of Stats), Adelaide had the easiest schedule of any team in 2017.

3 Jumper swapping is a fine, old tradition that seems to have died out, mainly because today’s kits are made to fit only the person wearing it. It’s never been a big practice in the AFL, so it was curious to see a clutch of players trade guernseys during the Indigenous Round, leading to the unusual spectacle of victorious blokes sticking out during the club song. But if this catches on and becomes ritual, particularly in a time like the Indigenous round, it’s a nice way for players to put their own stamp on these league office-driven thematic productions.

Lyden Dunn: not a Lion who wandered into the Collingwood rooms.

4 The thought bubble always emerges during Origin time in rugby league: should the concept be revived in the AFL? As someone who counts the 1988 Bicentennial Carnival as a highlight of their sport-watching youth – South Australia beat Victoria by 60 points at Football Park to cap the three-day event – I’ve had a nostalgic attachment to the Aussie rule’s version of Origin. Full admission: it doesn’t compare to the elegance of the NSW-Queensland dynamic, and there’s an argument that we have interstate footy every week in the modern AFL. Maybe a circuit-breaker is needed – the rise, perhaps, of a standalone NSW or Queensland side (we’re not talking the Allies here) to create another element in the contest.

5 Brad Johnson, who played Origin for Victoria back in 1997 to 1999, on the subject: “I was young … I roomed with Gavin Brown my first ever Origin game and hardly spoke I was that nervous. If a Bontempelli was able to walk around and share a midfield with a Dangerfield – how good would that be? For him and everybody? A Bontempelli would love that experience. I was lucky. I mean, I watched Ablett and Lockett in the same forward line at the MCG!”