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GEELONG VFL captain James Byrne has added another accolade to his wonderful career by taking out the JJ Liston Trophy last night.

The 29-year-old won the VFL's best and fairest award by two votes from Sandringham's Shane Valenti.

The inspirational midfielder led the voting by three votes after the first 11 rounds.

He didn't add another vote again until round 15, missing votes in round 13 despite racking up 43 possessions in Geelong's win over Frankston.

He picked up two votes in round 15 against Port Melbourne, as teammates such as Shannon Byrnes, Josh Hunt and Jason Davenport continued to share the spotlight.

Following the round 16 bye, he added another three votes in the round 17 win over Coburg to take a one-vote lead over Valenti.

The umpires awarded him another vote in the round 18 win over North Ballarat, extending his lead to two.

But Valenti scored three votes in the second last round, in which Byrne picked up none, to take the lead from the Cats' skipper.

But a final three votes in the last round win over Bendigo gave him a two-vote win over Valenti.

Hunt and Gardiner both finished in the top six.

Byrne's win continues what could be a clean sweep for the Cats this season.

Joel Selwood has already picked up the Rising Star award, while Gary Ablett is the hot tip to win the Brownlow Medal in a fortnight.

Both the VFL and AFL Geelong teams are favourites to win their respective premierships.

``This is a massive surprise. A massive, massive surprise,'' Byrne said last night.

He  thanked the Geelong coaching and support staff, for which he said the Cats were ``blessed''.

``I didn't expect this, there are so many good players at Geelong, guys like Josh Hunt, Shannon Byrnes, Jason Davenport,'' he said.

Byrne has won club awards in South Australia and Western Australia before moving to Geelong and taking out the Cats' club award in 2004.

Byrne played 24 senior games with Adelaide and was also rookie-listed at Sydney.

He was named captain and centre of the VFL team of the year last night, joining teammates Jason Davenport (wing) and Todd Grima (forward pocket).

It was the fourth consecutive year he had been named in the league's best team.