According to AFL legend Brendon Goddard, Collingwood has the best playing list in the competition entering the 2020 season, with reigning premiers Richmond a close second.

Goddard ranked each club's midfielders, defenders, forwards and rucks exclusively, with the Magpies prevailing across the board to come out on top of Goddard's overall rankings.

Goddard ranked Collingwood's defensive stocks fourth-best in the competition, with the midfield being the third-best, the forward line the fourth-best and their rucks the best in the AFL.

After two near-misses in the past two seasons, Goddard believes this is the time for the Pies to take that next step in what he has deemed a better list than the Tigers, who were the clear runaway premiers in 2019.

The Tigers were ranked second overall by Goddard, with their forwards and defenders both being ranked the best in the league, but it's the midfield and rucks that let the Tigers down according to Goddard, with the midfield coming in ranked fourth and the rucks ranked seventh.

West Coast and Brisbane rounded out the top four in the rankings, while minor premiers Geelong were ranked sixth due to their ruck stocks being ranked at 17th.

Gold Coast were ranked last at 18th, while Sydney were only just ahead in 17th spot.

Adelaide and Fremantle came in at 15th and 16th respectively with both teams looking at fresh starts with new coaches at the helm.

Goddard’s rankings were based on all clubs having fully fit lists in 2020 and his projected improvement or decline of players.

The overall rankings were based on Goddard awarding 18 points to the team ranked first in each position down to one point for the team he had ranked last in each position, which then all the points were combined for each team and thus determining their ranking.

BRENDON GODDARD'S LIST RANKINGS FOR 2020

1. Collingwood 64

2. Richmond 63

3. West Coast 62

4. Brisbane 57

5. GWS 53

6. Geelong 46

7. Western Bulldogs 39

8. Melbourne 39

9. Essendon 38

10. North Melbourne 36

11. Port Adelaide 35

12. Hawthorn 35

13. St Kilda 26

14. Carlton 24

15. Adelaide 23

16. Fremantle 16

17. Sydney 15

18. Gold Coast 13