DEPARTED St Kilda assistant coach Robert Harvey says he leaves the club with no hard feelings.

Harvey, who played 383 games for the Saints, quit as an assistant on Friday with two years to run on his contract.

The 40-year-old said his decision was based purely on improving his future career prospects, and had nothing to do with his disappointment at missing out on the senior coaching role eventually won by Scott Watters.

"I've met Scott Watters and I think he's a great candidate, so there's certainly no hard feelings at all," Harvey told Melbourne radio station SEN 1116 on Friday night.

"I knew I was inexperienced and I knew it was going to be hard to swing that vote, but I thought I could do it and I pushed hard.

"Obviously I'm disappointed to miss out, but no more disappointed than any of the other seven candidates that presented in that first round of presentations. 

"It certainly doesn't change the fact that I love the club and I always will."

Harvey said going through the interview process for the St Kilda job had strengthened his desire to become a senior coach.

To do that, he felt he needed to move into an unfamiliar environment and "get fair dinkum".

Part of that would involve trying to shed his nice guy image, which he thought may have held him back at the Saints.

"There's a perception created, and I obviously create that myself, and that's partly why you go away and try and make some changes," Harvey said.

"You don't want to change who you are, because I'm happy enough with that, but I do have to make some changes to change a few perceptions.

"Obviously being at St Kilda so long, it can be harder to do that."

The dual Brownlow medallist said he would make a decision on his next move "early next week".

He has been linked to a role under former playing rival Nathan Buckley at Collingwood.

Harvey retired from football at the end of 2008.

He spent the next two seasons on the coaching staff at Carlton before returning to St Kilda at the beckoning of Ross Lyon in 2011.