Victorian captain Jonathan Brown has admitted he went into Saturday night's Hall of Fame Tribute match less than fully fit, but backed himself not just to get through the match, but to make significant contribution to a victory for the Big V.

That's exactly how it turned out as Brown finished with three goals including two when leading from the front in a tense final term as the home side got up by 17 points.

Brown had been in serious doubt going into the match after pulling out of the Brisbane Lions' lead-up clash with Geelong at Skilled Stadium with a strained quadriceps.

"I've been around the game for a fair while now and I wasn't going to do anything stupid, but I probably wasn't 100 percent," said Brown at the Vics' post-match media conference.

"I was good enough to go … I spoke with the Brisbane medicos and they thought it was worth a punt."

"Actually I felt better in the game than what I did at training so that was a nice little surprise."

"I was always going to be my own man on this one and I thought I would approach it like a club game."

"I kept going back to the question, if I was playing for Brisbane, would I play this week … and obviously I didn't make a mistake by playing, I got through nice and healthy."

A significant knee injury to Collingwood ruckman Josh Fraser was the only downside of a big night for the Big V.

Fraser strained a posterior cruciate ligament midway through the final quarter, and the early word from the Victorian rooms was that Fraser could be sidelined for between four and eight weeks.

The news was more positive for Dream Team midfielder Daniel Kerr, who left the field with an ankle injury during the first quarter.

Scans revealed no significant damage and Kerr, who has two matches still to serve of a three-match suspension for head-butting Western Bulldogs veteran Scott West, is likely to be available for the Eagles' Round 10 clash with Collingwood at the MCG.

Meanwhile, Brown said he rated the victory, sparked by Allen Aylett Medalist Brendan Fevola's six goals, as the next best thing to playing in a winning grand final.

"It was a very special night and outside the premierships, we definitely won't forget that one," said Brown.

"It was an arm-wrestle for us and 'Bomber' (coach Mark Thompson) asked us for a big effort in the last quarter and the boys delivered in front of our home crowd."

"'Bomber' asked Fev and myself to put our hands up in that last quarter and we were able to isolate ourselves a little bit more and probably push the other forwards up the ground a bit."

"We work well in tandem and the boys really banged it in - it was set-up up the field, the boys really cracked in hard and tackled well."

"It was a good team effort but Fev was the one that really got us rolling for most of the night."

Brown said he was looking forward to celebrating with his new team-mates, not with isotonic drinks and glucose bars, but in a more traditional way.

"I'm from the old school. I like to have a beer with the guys you played against after a game growing up back in Warrnambool," Brown said with a smile.