Two-time AFL Brownlow Medallist Chris Judd has apologised for the controversial incident that could have made him ineligible for this year's award.

But he also says it was an accident and swears he is yet to watch vision of the contact with Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich.

The Carlton skipper was a popular, but surprise, winner of the league's highest individual award on Monday night, polling 30 votes to beat last year's winner Gary Ablett of Geelong by four.

Collingwood star Dane Swan, the raging-hot favourite, finished third on 24.

During the round-13 loss to Fremantle at Etihad Stadium, Judd threw his arm back and collected Pavlich across the cheek.

Pavlich's cheek was split open, but the panel ruled the contact was below what constituted a reportable offence.

"Yeah, I was probably a bit lucky," Judd said with a grin on stage after accepting his award.

"It was an accident - I am sorry."

Judd later added he was yet to see a replay of the incident, because he was so dirty about Carlton losing the game.

"I genuinely have never watched it - we were pretty dirty after that game because we'd just performed so badly," Judd said.

"I'm actually not lying when I said I've never seen it.

"I'm aware he got a cut from it and there was some media surrounding it, but it's not something I've spent a lot of time thinking about."

Judd had missed the first three games of the season after the tribunal found him guilty of the "pressure point" hold he put on Brisbane's Michael Rischitelli during the elimination final last year.

But it did not affect his eligibility for this year's award.

Judd came back with a vengeance from his suspension with an unprecedented run of best-afield performances.

He polled three votes from rounds four to eight, the first time the umpires have ruled a player is best afield for five-straight games.

Judd came to the count not expecting to do well, but that run started making him nervous.

He went to the toilet and when he returned, team-mate Kade Simpson played a practical joke, telling him he had polled another six votes.

"I thought 'this is amazing' - it turns out they'd had a segment on the 1970 grand final and I hadn't polled any votes," he said.

"I thought then I had to relax.

"It's not something you can plan or really expect, but it's certainly a huge honour and really exciting."

Apart from Judd's win, the other highlight of the night was a moving tribute to 1991 Brownlow Medallist and Melbourne president Jim Stynes, who is battling cancer.

Judd was a Demons fan growing up and Stynes was one of his heroes then, as he is now.

"You see someone like Jim Stynes and what he's doing in the real world - football, if you like, is make believe, it's like a self-indulgent pastime," Judd said.

"It's not real ... people like Jim and plenty of other ordinary Australians with lower profiles than Jim are the real heroes in our society."

Judd said several times his second medal was a "spinout".

He won his first with West Coast in 2004, where Judd played 134 games before going to the Blues in 2008.

Judd has played 64 games at Carlton for a career total of 198.

He will marry his famous fiance, model Rebecca Twigley, on New Year's Eve.

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