West Coast captain Ben Cousins is the winner of the AFL Brownlow medal.

While he sat nervously through the last couple of rounds of voting on Monday night, his sister Melanie sat nearby with conflicting emotions.

She is the partner of fellow Eagles midfielder Daniel Kerr, who finished one vote behind his victorious skipper.

Cousins won his first Brownlow on 20 votes, with Kerr on 19 as the Eagles dominated the leaderboard after an impressive season which has led them all the way to this Saturday's grand final.

St Kilda's Nick Dal Santo was third with 18 votes.

Cousins' father - former Geelong player Bryan - and mum Stephanie were also at the official club function in Perth to share in the win.

The first person Cousins hugged after neither he nor Kerr polled any votes in the final round against Adelaide was his partner, Samantha Druce.

"It's funny because going into the last round, I knew Kerry had played a really good game and I had a feeling that he was going to get two votes," Cousins said.

"I was hoping he'd get at least the one. He's had an outstanding year and he's a ripper bloke too."

Melanie was close to tears immediately after watching her brother receive his medal from last year's winner, team-mate Chris Judd.

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