Swan has been the subject of plenty of scrutiny lately, particularly after his highly-publicised interview on Channel Nine's The Footy Show.
Swan denied he had an illicit drug problem, but also admitted he did not always arrive at training at 100 per cent in 2012.
But on Tuesday morning, Buckley said the Brownlow medallist has had a fantastic pre-season and is ready to prove his worth out on the field.
"Wherever he was last year, he's in better shape this year," Buckley said on Nova FM.
The Pies coach also detailed the meeting in which the club reprimanded Swan for "breaking club protocol" in agreeing to the interview without its consent.
Swan was fined $5000 for not alerting club officials about the interview.
"He said: 'I should've let you know'," Buckley said.
"I said: 'That's right. Clearly you should have.' And we had a chat about it, and we reached the decision we reached.
"In the end, mutual respect is important in any relationship, in any environment."
Buckley said the publicity surrounding Swan was deflecting attention away from the club, as he used a well known analogy to describe the current climate.
"You know the one thing about a squeaky wheel, is that it takes the attention away from the other three that are working perfectly," Buckley said.
"And we've got a lot that are working well at the footy club and a lot of players who are fully invested. All of them are fully invested at the moment.
"We've had a better pre-season than we had last year, we're in better shape. But that's not going to make headlines though."
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire also admitted on Fox Footy on Monday night that he had confronted Swan about his behaviour last year, giving him a dose of "tough love".
Sydney Swans premiership coach and now commentator Paul Roos also weighed in to the debate.
"I think Collingwood are extremely well placed to win a premiership this year," Roos said on Fox Footy's On the Couch on Monday night.
"But if you have players that don't want to conform to your team ethos ... I would suggest there would be some players at the Collingwood Football Club that would be getting sick of Dane Swan."
Ben Guthrie is a reporter for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter- @AFL_BenGuthrie
