It was a case of third time lucky for Geelong champion Gary Ablett as he finally got his Brownlow Medal on Monday night to confirm his standing as the number one player in the AFL.

Ablett, who had been the beaten favourite in the past two Brownlows, dominated the 2009 count and actually sealed victory as early as Round 20 when he polled three votes against Sydney to move seven votes clear of the chasing pack with just two rounds and a maximum of six votes per player to be counted.

It was one of the most emphatic wins in the history of the AFL's highest individual honour as the 25-year-old polled 30 votes to finish eight clear of Carlton captain and 2004 winner Chris Judd while St Kilda's Lenny Hayes was in third place with 20 votes.

The big surprise of the night was the poor showing of second favourite in Collingwood's Dane Swan, who finished with just 12 votes and was never a chance after polling just three votes in the first nine rounds before finally picking up his first three vote game for his 48 possession effort in Round 10 against Port Adelaide.

But no-one was going to stop Ablett this year as he finally caught the eyes of the umpires to win his first Brownlow Medal to go with his past three wins in the AFL Players' Association's Most Valuable Player Award while he is also favoured to win his third successive award from the AFL Coaches' Association later this week.

After finishing nine votes adrift of teammate Jim Bartel when favourite in 2007 and equal third and two votes behind the Bulldogs' Adam Cooney when again favourite last year, Ablett virtually had this year's medal sewn up at Round 13 when he polled three votes against Port Adelaide to go six in front.

Such was his sustained dominance that not even missing three games due to injury - the first player to win the award after playing just 19 of the 22 games since Tony Liberatore in 1990 - that Ablett polled votes in 13 matches, including eight best on ground performances with his final tally only just falling short of the modern-day record of 32 set by St Kilda's Robert Harvey in the second of his back-to-back wins in 1998.

And it means Ablett now gets the chance to join teammate Bartel in winning a Brownlow Medal and a premiership in the same season as Bartel did two years ago.

In winning a Brownlow to go with his premiership medal, Ablett has now achieved two honours that eluded his famous father Gary snr during his illustrious 242 game career with the Cats from 1984-96 in which he was the Cats' all-time leading goalkicker with 1021 goals.

"He would be stoked for me," Ablett said when asked how his famous father would be feeling after watching his Brownlow Medal win.

"And it's going to be fantastic to go home and I can say I have done something he hasn’t done," he jokingly added.

Ablett's Brownlow Medal win comes on the eve of the 20th anniversary of his father's Norm Smith Medal in the 1989 grand final when he kicked a record nine goals in a losing side against Hawthorn - one of four losing grand finals that Gary snr played in without tasting the ultimate success.

The Norm Smith Medal for best afield in a grand final is now the only major award to have eluded Ablett jnr during his 167 game career, which also includes being named in the past two All-Australian teams as well as winning the Cats' 2007 best and fairest award.

But while Ablett, who looked visibly shattered when he lost narrowly to Cooney last year, vowed not to let his Brownlow win affect his grand final preparations - he would not be drawn on talk of completing the Brownlow-Norm Smith double in the one week.

"I am not thinking about (winning) the Norm Smith," Ablett said.

"It's just fantastic we have got another shot at the premiership and the guys are very excited about having another crack at it and we think we have got the team to do it."

Ablett admitted to feeling 'surreal' that he finally had the Brownlow around his neck but said he would soon forget about his triumph to ensure his grand final preparations are not effected this week.

"I am sure I will forget about it after tonight and just get back into training and do what I normally do and prepare for the game on Saturday."

"And it won't be too hard (to put his Brownlow win to the back of his mind) because we have got another chance to win a premiership."