Brownlow Medal favourite Chris Judd says it's not by chance that the rise in influence of his Carlton midfield colleagues has coincided with his second AFL players' association's most valuable player (MVP) award.

The Blues skipper on Monday night became just the fifth multiple winner in the history of the player-voted award, which he previously won with West Coast in 2006.

It adds to his long list of honours, which also includes Brownlows won at two clubs, the Eagles in 2004 and the Blues last year.

Judd said he had a stellar midfield around him when he won his previous MVP award with the Eagles and the fact that midfield teammates such as Marc Murphy and Heath Scotland had taken a step up this year was a big factor in Monday night's win.

"I think what really happened is Marc Murphy stepped up and just had such an amazing year that it really lightened the load on the rest of us," he said.

"Not just Murph, but the other midfielders as well have really had really strong years and that's made for a much lighter load on me." He said it was a good sign of the Blues' depth that they won Sunday's elimination final against Essendon, despite his own quieter-than-normal game.

Judd was an overwhelming winner, with his 1347 votes almost triple the tally of runner-up, Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury (456), with Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett (389) third.

The gulf in voting surprised the star Blue.

"I don't think any player in the competition is ever completely secure about where they fit in the picture and I'm always surprised to be rated so highly by my peers." Judd joined Ablett, Greg Williams, Wayne Carey and Michael Voss as players to have won the award more than once.

He was also voted the AFL's best captain for 2011, adding to a list of honours which include five club best and fairests, two with the Eagles and three with the Blues, as well as the 2005 Norm Smith Medal and captaining West Coast to the 2006 premiership.

Essendon's Dyson Heppell was named best first-year player, having last week received the AFL's Rising Star award.

Brisbane captain Jonathan Brown, who had facial surgery twice this year after two horrible collisions, was named the competition's most courageous player, an award he previously won in 2007 and 2008.

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