GIVEN the general indifference towards representative games by AFL fans, perhaps the league can still find a better way to celebrate approximately 150 years of Australian football than next Saturday night's Hall of Fame tribute match between Victoria and the Dream Team (the fancy title for "everyone else").

Rather than staging a star-studded but soulless extravaganza for an audience whose major emotional response will be a slight tightening of the knot in the stomach every time one of their club's players enters a physical contest, the AFL should bring forward the mouth-watering clash between premier Geelong and challenger-apparent Hawthorn. Thus we could celebrate a code in which club has always meant more than state and much more than country in fitting style.

Won't happen, of course, which means two things:

1. Due to the newly constructed schedule in which all teams no longer clash in the first 15 rounds, we must wait until round 17 (Friday, July 25) before the Cats and Hawks play what will be, unless there is a major reversal in form, one of the most keenly anticipated home-and-away games in recent history.

2. With the queues outside the medical rooms of both Victoria and the Dream Team already long, we must endure another round of the old club-versus-state debate that helped lead to the abandonment of the AFL's not particularly lamented state-of-origin series.

Meanwhile, as Geelong and Hawthorn take their winning streaks to seven and continue to distinguish themselves from the cluster of teams beneath them, the Western Bulldogs can blow a hole in that observation when they play Hawthorn in round 10 that it remained possible the round-17 blockbuster would be between two undefeated teams. Surprisingly, after escaping from Subiaco with a one-point victory over Fremantle then taking until the last quarter to shake off the inaccurate Brisbane, the Cats now seem more likely to stumble.

Not that the alarm bells are ringing at Kardinia Park. With Gary Ablett missing against the Lions and ruckman Brad Ottens likely to make his first appearance for the season after the Hall of Fame game, the Cats have considerable room for improvement. That they have remained undefeated while only producing their devastating best in patches seems ominous.

Almost as ominous as the Hawks, whose brilliant start to the season has prompted painstaking dissection of the defensive zone employed to stop the opposition moving the ball out of defence. However, as Collingwood found throughout a humbling 65-point defeat, unravelling the Hawks' tactics is easier on paper than on the MCG.

Then there is the Buddy Factor, which was made more chilling this weekend by the fact that boom forward Lance "Buddy" Franklin kicked 6.4, yet was only really influential when the game was well won. That allowed the spotlight to shine on Franklin's deep and talented supporting cast, although his duel with Geelong's brilliant full-back Matthew Scarlett in round 17 will be compelling.

Fans can get a taste this weekend if, as expected, the Victorian Scarlett lines up on the West Australian Franklin. However, given that the tactics employed by Geelong and Hawthorn will be vastly different than those in an exhibition match — even with Cats coach Mark Thompson in charge of the Victorians — it won't be the real thing.

Nor will the Hall of Fame present quite the array of superstars the promoters had promised. Of the top-liners, Victoria could be without captain Jonathan Brown, Ablett, Simon Black and Luke Hodge. The Dream Team has lost St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt. Expect more squad members to report to training on Tuesday bearing notes from their coaches to be excused.

Just as predictably, the big crowd at the MCG on Saturday night, inevitable given it is the only game in a football-addicted city, will be used to justify calls for the return of State of Origin, unlikely given recent comments from the AFL. However, the league is threatening to revive the bizarre international rules series against Ireland, with even tougher laws to police the rough play that caused the Irish to take their round ball and go home.