"I love the Melbourne Football Club. I could not leave," he told melbournefc.com.au.
"Ever since I've walked into the place, they've welcomed me and made it feel like home. That's what I kept coming back to – it's home. The red and blue is home to me.
"I got to the stage where I was weighing everything up – backwards and forwards – and I was considering not just my football life, but my future. That's why it took longer than expected."
The Tasmanian has played 186 matches since debuting for Melbourne in 2000 and will now remain until at least the end of 2011.
"It was a tough week … it came around last night when I said, 'No, I'm going to stay and I'm happy being a Melbourne player'. Hopefully, I will play 10, 11 or 12 years – I've got a three-year deal and hopefully it's more after that," Green said.
"I'm happy being a Melbourne player and really now I want to help bring these young kids along and fast-track them as quick as we can, so we can become a powerful Melbourne-based club. We want to be a powerful force again.
"We've got three picks in the top 20 in this year's draft and as soon as we can get those kids up to speed, hopefully we'll start winning games again – and that's what I'm all about. It's all about winning games and winning games for the footy club."
Green said he had some great support when making his decision.
"I'm always pretty up front with my father, and my Dad and I are pretty close. My wife Anna, Dad and Mum were very close in my decision and they knew how tough I was doing it and weighing up the options," he said.
"Even talking to clubs was very hard for me to do – even listening to their thoughts of me leaving Melbourne took a while to adjust and getting used to having a chat to [other clubs] this week.
"Those three people, I two-ed and fro-ed over a lot of things – not only football, but life in general this week."
Green said there wasn't a particular club that had the edge in attempting to lure him.
He suggested that he and the club now appreciated each other even more.
"No doubt, the club was always hoping that I was always going to stay and I never had it in the back of my mind that I was going to leave either," he said.
"I was always hopeful that this decision was not going to hurt us in the 'love stakes' – I was very mindful of that. That's why we were comfortable in the process of it all. I didn't lose the respect for them and they didn't from my end.
"I love the football club like family and see them that way."
