CHRIS Fagan will resume coaching Brisbane immediately after the club's board ratified his return to the helm.
Fagan took a leave of absence last month following an independent Hawthorn report into its treatment of First Nations players during his time at the club from 2008 to 2016.
But after a five-week absence, Brisbane's board met on Tuesday night and approved Fagan's return.
TERMS OF REFERENCE AFL releases details, end date of Hawks probe
A four-person independent investigation into the allegations at Hawthorn is now underway and will be completed by December 22.
"The Board of the Brisbane Lions have agreed that Chris Fagan will resume head coaching duties from Wednesday, October 26, 2022," the club said in a statement.
"This follows the release by the AFL of the Terms of Reference for the independent investigation of allegations of inappropriate conduct at the Hawthorn Football Club.
"The Board will provide Chris with any future leave required to allow him to participate in the investigation."
Speaking on Monday afternoon, Brisbane CEO Greg Swann said it was a joint decision between the coach and club that Fagan would return.
"Initially (Fagan took leave) because of the seriousness of the charges and just to take a bit of the heat out of it, but now there's a bit more clarity around what's happening, he can come back jointly with us," Swann said.
"For those that know him, we struggle to compute he would be involved in any of that stuff.
"As it's gone on, he's gone through those peaks where he's been disappointed, then he's been angry, now he's looking forward to getting back to work then clearing his name."
Brisbane's first- to fourth-year players are due to return to the club in late November, with the senior players back on December 5.
Alastair Clarkson, who was Hawthorn's head coach during the time that is being investigated, is yet to have his start date as North Melbourne coach officially locked in.
Clarkson had initially pushed back his proposed November 1 start when the allegations surfaced, but club president Sonja Hood said recently she was "hopeful" he would start on that date as originally planned.
Clarkson returned to Melbourne this week from overseas and said he is looking forward to telling his side of the story in the independent investigation, but he wouldn't be drawn on when he would officially link up with North.
"If somewhere along the line we get the opportunity to return to work, then that would be great as well," Clarkson told the Nine Network. "But our priority is to make sure that we co-operate fully with the investigation.
"I'm just pleased that they've been able to identify a platform in which we can reveal some of the truth behind this and then we get onto it.
"The bottom line is our most significant commitment that we need to address in the next little while is obviously the investigation."
