Burns announced on Tuesday that he was leaving the Eagles after five seasons as an assistant coach under John Worsfold to return to Melbourne as the midfield coach at his former club Collingwood.
West Coast appointed ex-North Melbourne captain and Hawthorn assistant Adam Simpson as coach last week.
"At the end of the day you're at a club that I was part of where we finished 13th," Burns said on 6PR radio on Tuesday.
"I would've been going against the grain. I would've been the first assistant coach ever appointed from a team that's finished 13th who hasn't come in as a caretaker coach.
"So I understand where the club was going. They wanted something fresh, something new.
"Woosh was here for 12 years and I was here for five of them. Take myself out of the equation and remove my ego and I can fully understand the direction they were going in."
Burns still believed he had what it took to be a senior coach at AFL level and didn't believe his credentials were an issue.
"It's really right fit, right time," Burns said.
"I feel like I'm ready to go and the club certainly don't see that any differently, but for where the club wants to go at this point in time I'm just not the right fit and I completely understand."
The 38-year-old said it was hard to walk away from West Coast but the opportunity at Collingwood was too good to refuse.
"I was really up in the air up still two days ago," Burns said.
"I certainly liked the idea of working with Adam Simpson here.
"But I just felt five years in Perth, I thought that was plenty of time at one club, and I know it's going back to Collingwood but I still see it as completely different to when I left as a player.
"I think it's quite exciting knowing I'm not only going back to help (Nathan Buckley) out but knowing there's Rodney Eade and Robert Harvey, and Ben Hart who was under Malcolm Blight and Neil Craig as well.
"There's just a lot there to think that I can develop myself even further."
Burns felt his experience at West Coast would hold him in good stead for the future.
"I learnt more this year than I probably did the previous two years when we were up around the top four.
"I really feel that this year, even though it wasn't the year West Coast supporters wanted, personally I've learnt a lot from it."
