JONATHAN Brown arrives in Melbourne today and it is increasingly likely that he will frustrate his club's coach, but please his state's, by agreeing to take the field as captain of Victoria on Saturday night.

Players of both sides gather in Melbourne today and those with niggling injury concerns, who are simultaneously battling the competing interests of state, heart and club, confront their first moment of truth about whether they will make themselves available to play for their representative team.

Brown and Geelong midfielder Gary Ablett will consult team officials and doctors ahead of training tomorrow before finally declaring their fitness.

Brown appears likely to ignore Leigh Matthews' stated preference and line up for Victoria, but a firm decision will not be known until tomorrow afternoon.

"I'm hopeful at the moment. I think I'm a good chance of playing but I'm still not, I wouldn't say, in the definite category just yet," Brown said on Footy Classified on Monday night.

Lance Franklin's shoulder, Adam Cooney's ankle and Ben Rutten's back will be assessed before they are cleared for the Dream Team.

West Coast's Dean Cox, who has been the All-Australian ruckman for the past three years, has declared his fitness having satisfied himself and the Eagles' doctor that his foot injury would be OK.

"I spoke to the doctor after the game on Friday and he said 'look, do you want to play?' and yeah I always wanted to, but it was depending on how I pulled up, and it pulled up OK so I'll be out there on Saturday night," Cox said.

"It certainly does get worse as the game goes on, but it's not restricting me in any way.

"I'm going to be rucking to Joel Corey and Shaun Burgoyne and kicking it up forward to Buddy Franklin and Matthew Pavlich, so it's a very exciting time and it should be a great spectacle."