With Jeff Farmer joining Shaun McManus, Peter Ball, Matthew Carr, Heath Black, Luke Webster and Mark Johnson in retirement this week and Josh Carr wanting to move back to Port Adelaide there is a new era at Fremantle, and that excites Harvey after the club showed pleasing signs towards the end of a disappointing season.
"When a lot of the older players move on and retire the young guys take centre stage and are asked to do a lot more for the team," Harvey said.
"It's been interesting to watch that transformation and we are seeing a lot of angles as to what we can do over the next couple of years. To not have the sole reliance on our star players is where you want to head as a team.
"In the second half of the season we introduced a lot of different players into the midfield. Guys like (Garrick) Ibbotson, (David) Mundy and (Byron) Schammer offered us different things in terms of speed and being able to hold their own around stoppages.
"We started to win our stoppages and any kid that we take in this next draft can look ahead to playing with guys like Rhys (Palmer) and our other young players."
Two key players that have yet to decide their futures are David Mundy and Robert Warnock, with Harvey desperate for both to stay.
"They are Victorian kids who have been over here for a period of time and we are working through their contracts. Hopefully we can get them signed up to remain part of this group because they are key parts of it," he said.
"Both have leadership qualities too so early in their careers, so we need to keep them. We've gone through the review process, gone through conversations with management about their contracts and hopefully it's getting closer."
Farmer desperately wanted to play on in 2009 but the club decided otherwise.
Harvey wants people to remember Farmer for the terrific player he was and believes there are players at the club to fill the void he leaves.
"It was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my short time as coach. In the end, Jeff understood what the club was about and where it was heading, and it was a compromise between him and the club," he said.
"The club will be in regular contact about Jeff about his welfare and how he's going, but we have some really good Aboriginal leaders just in behind him. Des Headland will be a really good leader, as will (Antoni) Grover and (Roger) Hayden. Jeff was a fantastic player for the footy club and that's how everyone should remember him."
