He said players had different roles this season - with Brent Macaffer tagging the opposition's most damaging midfielder, captain Scott Pendlebury and midfielders Luke Ball and Dayne Beams have joined Swan in spending more time in attack.
Swan, 30, said he didn't have a problem with the move forward and believed the Pies' improvement had come from the players buying into a more team-orientated mindset.
"I enjoy it - 'Beamsy' reaped the rewards last night and kicked four, I kicked four the week before," Swan said on Saturday morning after the Pies' 34-point win over Carlton.
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"It's all about sharing.
"I think another big step for this group has been the selflessness of the group.
"In years gone by maybe we've been fighting to push each other into the middle and kick people out, but this year it's all about what's best for the side and getting fresh legs through the middle.
"It's been really good for us."
Swan's thoughts were echoed by captain Scott Pendlebury, who said the Pies had previously fallen into the trap of each player looking after himself on the field.
"Last year … you never go out on the football field to be selfish but we were all trying so hard individually to get things done," Pendlebury told SEN.
"This year we seem to be working a lot more efficiently as a group.
"Out there, we seem to be doing less work in terms of running because we’re all doing efficient running."
Swan said the Pies would have happily taken a 5-2 start to the season ahead of their first bye when they were training over summer.
Pendlebury said he decided in the pre-season there was no limit on what they could achieve this year.
With few injuries and belief in the number of depth players who were understood the game-plan, Pendlebury said internal expectations didn't mirror those outside the club.
"We were always pretty optimistic about what we could achieve at the start of the year," he said.
"Externally, it was 'Collingwood is going to fall back and be lucky to make the eight' but we've always believed we're a good side.
"Expectations will grow now because we're five and two and we should be in the top four at the end of this round.
"We will welcome those, but football is such a week to week game we've got to keep backing up every week and the type of footy we're playing now isn't going to be good enough in four weeks' time.
"We've got to keep improving."
Swan said things were more stable at the club this year with a younger list after the departure of the likes of Heath Shaw, Alan Didak and Ben Johnson.
"The boys are pretty close and from the start of pre-season we really believed we could go a long way," he said.
"As for the culture, I think 'Bucks' is putting his stamp on it and it's a pretty hard thing to measure.
"No one's got in trouble yet and there's been no in-fighting … I suppose you can probably write a headline about that if you want."
Twitter: @AFL_JenPhelan
"It's all about sharing.
"I think another big step for this group has been the selflessness of the group.
"In years gone by maybe we've been fighting to push each other into the middle and kick people out, but this year it's all about what's best for the side and getting fresh legs through the middle.
"It's been really good for us."
Swan's thoughts were echoed by captain Scott Pendlebury, who said the Pies had previously fallen into the trap of each player looking after himself on the field.
"Last year … you never go out on the football field to be selfish but we were all trying so hard individually to get things done," Pendlebury told SEN.
"This year we seem to be working a lot more efficiently as a group.
"Out there, we seem to be doing less work in terms of running because we’re all doing efficient running."
Swan said the Pies would have happily taken a 5-2 start to the season ahead of their first bye when they were training over summer.
Pendlebury said he decided in the pre-season there was no limit on what they could achieve this year.
With few injuries and belief in the number of depth players who were understood the game-plan, Pendlebury said internal expectations didn't mirror those outside the club.
"We were always pretty optimistic about what we could achieve at the start of the year," he said.
"Externally, it was 'Collingwood is going to fall back and be lucky to make the eight' but we've always believed we're a good side.
"Expectations will grow now because we're five and two and we should be in the top four at the end of this round.
"We will welcome those, but football is such a week to week game we've got to keep backing up every week and the type of footy we're playing now isn't going to be good enough in four weeks' time.
"We've got to keep improving."
Swan said things were more stable at the club this year with a younger list after the departure of the likes of Heath Shaw, Alan Didak and Ben Johnson.
"The boys are pretty close and from the start of pre-season we really believed we could go a long way," he said.
"As for the culture, I think 'Bucks' is putting his stamp on it and it's a pretty hard thing to measure.
"No one's got in trouble yet and there's been no in-fighting … I suppose you can probably write a headline about that if you want."
Twitter: @AFL_JenPhelan
