Sydney star Adam Goodes won his second Brownlow Medal on Monday night, clinching the honour with a sensational finish to the AFL season.

Goodes, who did not poll a vote in the first five rounds, polled 26 in the remaining 17 rounds, including seven three-vote games for best on ground honours.

He picked up 10 votes in the final four rounds, hitting the front for the first time after round 21, when he picked up three votes, then picking up three more in the final round to clinch victory.

Western Bulldogs' veteran Scott West was the runner-up with 23 votes, the second time he has been runner-up and his fifth top-four finish in his 14-season career.

Goodes also won the 2003 Brownlow Medal, sharing that honour with Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley and Adelaide's Mark Ricciuto.

The win made him the first indigenous footballer to become a multiple Brownlow medallist.

He joins St Kilda veteran Robert Harvey, who won back-to-back Brownlows in 1997-98, as the only current players to have won the award more than once.

He is the 12th player to do so overall.

It continues a glittering set of career achievements for the 26-year-old, who was part of Sydney's premiership side last year and will play with the Swans in Saturday's grand final against the Eagles.

He has the chance to become the 12th player in VFL/AFL history to win a Brownlow and play in a premiership in the same season.

Among Goodes' other achievements, he took out the AFL's Rising Star award in 1999 and was this season named an All Australian for the second time.

It was the 14th time a Swans player has won a Brownlow Medal, the most by any club, and sixth time in the past 26 years.

The 14 Swans medals include three to Bob Skilton (1959, 1963, 1968), who until now was the only multiple winner in the Swans' colours.

When Goodes won in 2003, he attended the ceremony in Melbourne, famously choosing his mother, Lisa May, to accompany him.

This time, he was with his teammates at Sydney's Hilton Hotel, with the club choosing not to disrupt its grand final preparation by flying to Melbourne.

It is the fourth time in six years the winner has not been at the official ceremony in Melbourne.

Goodes' mother was working in a Sydney nursing home on Monday night, relying on text messages from another son, Jake, to alert her to Goodes' progress in the count.

It will be the sixth time in seven seasons, a Brownlow medallist has gone on to play in that season's grand final, including last year's medallist Ben Cousins.

Brisbane's Simon Black, in 2002, was the last player to play in a premiership after winning the Brownlow.

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