Nick Riddle and Jack Hellier have been appointed co-captains of the 27-man squad that will be led by new coach Dale Tapping.
The move of captain and Best and Fairest winner Kris Pendlebury to Werribee during the off-season forced a change of leadership, one that Tapping believes needs to be shared between two of the team's most promising young players.
"I just feel that given the profile of our list, which is young, and obviously losing Kris Pendlebury to Werribee, going with co-captains and where those players are at with the potential for them to develop and lead is only going to improve," Tapping told collingwoodfc.com.au.
Scroll down to view Collingwood's full VFL list for 2013 and click on each player's name to view their player profile.
"At this stage we feel that it's probably a bit hard for one of them to do the job outright.
"If we share the load it's just going to make them a bit more comfortable in the role. In 12 months time things may change, but it's just going to give us better balance across the list with having two."
Fifteen of the 21 players on last year's list have returned, which is a healthy result for a team that recorded only four wins.
Familiar faces who will saddle up again include 2011 Best and Fairest Tom Sundberg, Lachlan Wallace, Cathal Corr and Matthew Hine.
Sundberg is the only player remaining from the team's rebirth as a stand-alone side under Gavin Brown in 2008.
A member of the VFL's Team of the Year in 2011, Sundberg has been sidelined by an ankle injury during the pre-season but is hoped to make a return in just over a month's time.
In surmising the list, Tapping believes that it bats deeper than its processor despite the lack of star quality.
"I think our list is really even. I don't think there's any real standouts. I'm comfortable with that.
"I personally think the list is better than in 2012, and that's losing Kris Pendlebury who was obviously a standout player.
"I think the gap between our first player to our 15th player is really even whereas last year the gap from first to three was huge. Our list is condensed and there's some real evenness amongst the list.
"We've got 15 of the 21 from last year who have come back, so you would like to think that those guys will be better for the exposure last year in what was a pretty tough year.
"We should have better coverage with our AFL list and greater depth through our rookie list.
"We should have hopefully a few more wins in us this year than what we've had previously."
One feature of the club's 2013 VFL list is its new development squad. Six players (including two from last year's main list) have all been recruited with an eye to using the Westpac Centre's elite training facilities while putting their hands up for selection on the main VFL list in 2014.
"The Development List is new and sits outside our VFL list," explained Tapping.
"These guys will be training with us each week. We want to educate them and train them up with the focus of them improving their footy and getting on our list next year.
"We feel that it's going to help their footy and it's going to help us with training numbers. We'd like to add to it throughout the course of the year which will create some opportunities for a couple of guys at local level.
"We need to look at these development programs going forward with the Bulldogs standing alone and Richmond standing alone in the next few years.
"We've got to try and get the jump on the other teams."
Collingwood's 2013 VFL List
(Click on each player's name to view their full profile and to find out what coach Dale Tapping says about them)
51. Cathal Corr
52. Lachlan Wallace
53. Jack Hellier
54. Tom Sundberg
55. Matthew Boland
56. Nick Riddle
57. Tim Allan
58. Ben Moloney
59. Sam Williams
60. Matthew Hine
61. Nick Gray
62. Lachlan Ferguson
63. Jordan Collopy
64. Scott Greenhough
65. Chris Mangoni
66. Tom Tyquin
67. Tyson Mitchem
68. Billy Barden
69. Brendan Rinaldi
70. Glenn Strachan
71. Jackson Heagney-Steart
Development Squad
Joe Cousins, Dylan Gabron-Uhe, Will De Bruin, Chris Gleeson, Tyrren Head, Callum Matheson
