"GETTING the body out" has paid off for Greater Western Sydney defender Matthew Buntine, who has been crowned Cleo Bachelor of the Year.

The 22-year-old was named the winner on Wednesday night at Darlinghurst's ARQ with teammates Josh Kelly, Jack Steele, Adam Kennedy, Nick Haynes and James Stewart in attendance.

Buntine won a $5000 cheque and a 12-day trip for two to Vietnam, and joins a long list of winners including comedian Andy Lee, chef Hayden Quinn, actor Eric Bana and former Hawthorn star Dermott Brereton.

Buntine said the competition's topless photo shoot had been "pretty daunting" but had taken it in his stride.

"They straight away chucked water on the shirt that you were wearing so I was pretty quick to get that off," Buntine told SEN on Thursday morning.

"I don't really have the greatest looking head so I thought the only way I'm going to win this is if I get the body out, so I just ran with that.

Below: The picture of Matthew Buntine on Cleo's Twitter feed.

"Playing footy you don't really notice cameras and I'm not too fond of them but the ladies at the shoot were really great and they made you as comfortable as possible.

"I'm sure it was just one good shot I got."

He also said the fact it happened on the players' off-season gave him extra reason to keep in shape over his holidays.

"I had probably a two-week blow out and then it was back into the gym and running," he said.

"There was a bit of intrinsic motivation on top of coming back in good nick for pre-season training."

As well as his official prizes, Buntine said he expected to cop "a lot of flak" from his teammates and there had already been a request from Rhys Palmer for some of the money to swell next year's Mad Monday fund.

"We'll see how we go but it was a nice little treat for a bit of fun," he said.