Geelong fans are being urged to drag out their old gear as the Cats “go retro” on Saturday night. Photo: AFL MEDIA

1. Forget for a moment the statement Geelong needs to make on the field to arrest its form slump. The Cats have another message for you this week.

The instructions are as such: “Pull on your duffle coat, grab your Spiro Malakellis badge and whack your “Cat Attack” sticker on your car.”

It’s “Retro Round” at the Cattery, and the inhabitants down at Sleepy Hollow are celebrating all the weird and wonderful features of yesteryear’s football.

They’re not alone. Saturday night’s opponent, North Melbourne, celebrated its 150-year anniversary this month by naming the 10 greatest players in its history.

Fremantle will mark its 25th AFL season by donning a replica of its original home jumper – in all its red-and-green chest-panelled glory – when it hosts Essendon in round 22. The fixture is a repeat of the Dockers’ first ever home game, when Gerard Neesham’s side hosted the Bombers at the WACA Ground in round two, 1995.

Collingwood’s latest white-and-black “clash” jumper (which is slightly different to the modern black-and-white home design) is a nod to a guernsey from decades past, as is Hawthorn’s predominantly yellow change strip.

Shows like “The Front Bar” thrive on throwback yarns with stars of days gone by as guests, and Fox Sports celebrates old-style footy with its own “Retro Round” across different codes.

The Herald Sun’s “Sacked” podcast is rating its socks off, as did the brilliant “The Greatest Season That Was: 1993” podcast last year.

Even our own Mark Fine got in on the reminiscing act this week with this terrific piece. There is a clear and tangible thirst for nostalgia among football followers.

It begs an obvious question – what happened to the league’s official Heritage Round? And, more pertinently, when is it coming back?

2. Brisbane could set up a top-of-the-table clash with Geelong next week if, as expected, it belts local rival Gold Coast in the “Q-Clash”.

The Lions could also finish the home-and-away season as low as sixth. It’s that kind of year.

The common refrain is that anything can happen in derby matches. The big rivalries stir emotion inside the underdog and can rattle the favourite, making upsets possible.

But not this time. Chris Fagan will have his Lions primed for battle. They have overcome most challenges thrown their way this season, and the visit of the lowly Suns to the Gabba shouldn’t be an issue.

The second part of this week’s equation for Brisbane is percentage. Only percentage splits the top three sides with three games left before September, and home ground advantage in the finals is there for the taking.

Don’t for a second pretend that home ground advantage doesn’t mean anything anymore. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be talking about Richmond getting to play its last seven home-and-away matches at the MCG.

We wouldn’t have seen Geelong lobbying for a home final to be played at GMHBA Stadium and we wouldn’t have each week’s visitor to Perth talking about travel being a factor.

After Gold Coast, the Lions take on top-four rivals Geelong (home) and Richmond (away) in their final two games. To say it’s crunch time is an understatement.

3. If you think you’ve seen the last of AFLX, think again. There’s no way the AFL would have spent all that money and energy on the concept, only to give up on it that easily.

However, in deciding to put it on the backburner for now, the league has admitted a huge blunder in timing its oft-ridiculed “kick-and-giggle” tournament to coincide with the AFLW season.

February and (most of) March will rightly be the domain of the women’s competition from now on, giving it clear air on the football calendar as it embarks on further expansion.

But AFLX will return at some point. Note of the wording used on the AFL website, which reported the league would remove AFLX “from its pre-season schedule”.

Don’t be surprised to see the mangled version of bruise-free footy back in the build-up to Christmas, when the AFL has traditionally had a lull in what has become close to a year-round news cycle.

Clubs are usually doing some sort of match practice by then, and a bit of extra circle work in fluro uniforms won’t be any skin off their noses as their players cash-in on a bit of promotional work for the league.

Expect a much deeper approach to a regenerated marketing and promotion scheme when the AFL rebirths the concept.

4. If recent history is any guide, say the last two or three years, then it’s safe to assume Elliot Yeo will rack up about 24 disposals when West Coast hosts Adelaide on Sunday.

More than half of them will likely be contested, and you can throw in about seven tackles, five or six clearances and a goal or two.

They’ll be numbers that please fantasy football coaches, Eagles fans and, of course, Adam Simpson, who is a good chance to give his utility some votes towards the AFLCA “Champion Player of the Year” award.

Yeo is a top-20 fancy for the Brownlow Medal after polling 15 votes last year, and wouldn’t be a silly bet to be right in contention for the game’s most coveted individual award at some point in his career.

The hype-o-meter around the 25-year-old gun got an unexpected jolt when he starred against Carlton (and Patrick Cripps) last week, but why has it taken so long for the Melbourne-centric media to take notice?

Fox Sports News reporter Julian De Stoop half-jokingly conceded Victorian journos could be “a bit slow to twig onto the WA teams” during an interview with West Coast coach Simpson on “AFL Tonight”.

But as with many jokes of this nature, there’s an element of truth to the comment. It’s no surprise Simpson got a laugh out of it.

Yeo’s list of accolades already reads better than most.

At 25, the East Fremantle product is a 150-game AFL star, premiership player, All-Australian and a dual best-and-fairest winner, once in a premiership year.

He’s won the John Worsfold Medal in each of the past two seasons, becoming Simpson’s “Mr Fix It” through the midfield and at both ends of the ground when required.

And he could have a massive say in another September campaign as West Coast attempts to go back-to-back. Like Yeo, the Eagles seem to have flown under the radar. Ignore them at your peril.

5. Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson’s famous “no long sleeves” jumper policy will be seriously put to the test this week.

Snow is a chance to fall in Canberra on Friday night when the Hawks take on Greater Western Sydney in what could be the watered-down AFL equivalent of the 1967 “Ice Bowl” NFL championship game.

The Hawks-Giants fixture will at least reach similar levels of chill factor to that famous day at Waverley Park in 1993, when Brisbane’s Paul Peos had to shield his face from the pelting hail.

The then-Bears forward (now a player manager) even had to raise a hand to indicate to the umpire that he’d taken a mark, such was the lack of visibility.

Long sleeves would have been handy. So, too, would a beanie, scarf and thermals for the players at a venue semi-fondly known as “Arctic Park”. But we digress.

Canberrans this weekend should pack all that attire on Friday night, as well as their puffer jackets (because everyone’s got one these days).

The temperature is expected to be in the low single digits when the ball is bounced. If there’s no snow, there’ll at least be wind and rain, and you shudder to think what the “feels like” temperature will drop to.

Don’t be surprised to see heaters used on the benches, as they were three years ago at the North Melbourne-Richmond fixture in Hobart.

But there will be some surprise if Hawthorn players bring out the long sleeves.

You wonder if Chad Wingard might be knocking on Clarko’s door this week with a special request (and a little trepidation) to temporarily suspend the ban.