North football director Geoff Walsh announced three weeks ago that Ling would not continue his part-time leadership role at Arden Street, saying the former Geelong captain had decided to focus on his media commitments.
But Geelong announced on Friday that Ling would be returning to the club he played 246 games for from 2000-2011.
"The Cats 2011 premiership captain Cameron Ling will take up a role as an off-field player development consultant, working mainly with the club's senior players on a needs basis," the Cats' statement said.
Ling was approached by several clubs this season about taking on full-time assistant coaching roles, most notably by Melbourne.
But he announced in August that he would not be taking on any full-time football roles in the immediate future and would instead focus on his media career.
Walsh said three weeks ago that Ling's media commitments would limit his time for coaching roles in 2015.
"He came to a bit of a fork in the road at the end of the footy season with some coaching options on the go, but the media stuff particularly will be ramping up," Walsh said.
"I think he's decided he'll give that a good crack for a couple of years and see where he wants to go in a footy sense from there, but it's certainly going to squeeze him out time-wise."
