Werribee co-captain Tom Gribble is now a two-time J.J Liston Trophy winner after a stunning victory in this year's VFL best-and-fairest.

Gribble became the first Werribee player to win the league's top honour twice and just the fourth player to win the award back-to-back having topped the last Liston Trophy count in 2019. 

The 27-year-old polled 30 votes to finish eight ahead of Southport Sharks teammates Jacob Dawson and Boyd Woodcock. He received votes in 12 matches, which included eight best-on-ground performances.

Gribble averaged a career-high 33.2 disposals per game in 2022 and led the VFL in total disposals with 597. He also ranked first for inside 50s (100) and was second for clearances (132) and contested possessions (249).

Gribble said it was incredible to win the award for a second time after drawing motivation from a challenging year off in 2020 and several other factors.

“It’s sort of hard to put into words really, I thought 2019 was a bit mind numbing but this is equal to that…it’s a great honour,” he said.

“I think the harbouring of the ambition to go on and play AFL footy has held me in good stead to find continual improvement within my game and I was also a little disappointed with how I played last year.

“Coming off the year off and my dad passing I didn’t play as well as I would have liked even though it was only a nine-game season.

“That spurred me on to get cracking a little bit earlier in terms of starting preseason, so the whips were cracking for me in August and then the captaincy also added another layer.

“I probably put more pressure on myself to perform and I did have a few conversations with Mick (Barlow) throughout the middle part of the year, in particular to just release and not put so much pressure on myself.”