Victoria's greatest modern-day state player Dale Weightman says the 25 players lucky enough to pull on the famous Big V guernsey against the Dream Team in Saturday night's AFL Hall of Fame match will emerge far better players for their club.

Weightman said far from focusing on the negatives of playing in such games - the risk of injury - clubs should be doing their utmost to get their players to play because the benefits far outweighed the risk of injury.

"You can't help but become a better player (after playing state football)," Weightman told Sportal on Tuesday.

"You just pick up so much by training with the best and then playing with and against the best and it's a chance for you to pick the brains of opposition players you don't normally get to play with."

Weightman represented Victoria on a record 18 occasions in State of Origin matches from 1980-91 and, despite being captain of Richmond and playing in the Tigers' 1980 premiership team, was remembered at the end of his career as much for his feats for the Big V as he was for his 274 games in the yellow and black.

And the man known as 'Flea' is thrilled to see the famous Big V jumper he wore with such pride returning for its first outing in nine years on Saturday.

"It's absolutely fantastic and great for these young blokes of today that have never had the chance to play for Victoria," he said.

"And the players are dead-set keen to play, it's just a shame their clubs put pressure on them not to play."

Brisbane star Jonathan Brown - the captain of Victoria - has already come under pressure from his coach Leigh Matthews to miss the game but Weightman desperately hopes the star forward lines-up.

Weightman said he has previously spoken to Brown about the joy of playing for Victoria and said the Lions' powerhouse 'was jumping out of his skin to play'.

And Weightman, who is now the Tigers welfare manager, is equally keen for his own club's marquee player in Matthew Richardson to play for the Dream Team.

While Victorian matches were traditionally against arch-rivals Western Australia and South Australia during Weightman's time in the 1980s - he has no problems with the Vics playing a combined team from the rest of Australia on Saturday night.

"It's a great concept and it gives the great players from the other states (outside Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia) like Richo (who is from Tasmania) the chance to play," he said.

Now Weightman is just hoping the Victorian public will get behind Saturday night's match in the way they did in what he rates his most memorable state game - against South Australia at the MCG in 1989.

Just like now, there had not been a state game played in Melbourne for nine years leading into that match - although unlike today there had been regular state matches in the years in between with Victoria travelling to Perth and Adelaide on a yearly basis to play South Australia and Western Australia.

"I played nearly 20 state games and it was the only one I ever played in Melbourne," Weightman said in recalling that famous 1989 match.

"No-one was sure how many people were going to go to the match and when we ran down the race we just couldn't believe