Coaches Chris Fagan and Alastair Clarkson won't have any involvement in Brisbane and North Melbourne's respective trade periods as they await an AFL investigation into racism allegations during their time at Hawthorn.
Fagan is on leave from Brisbane while Clarkson's start date at the Kangaroos has been pushed back to November 1.
The pair have vehemently denied any wrongdoing after being named in a report detailing allegations of racism while Clarkson was coach and Fagan his assistant at Hawthorn.
Brisbane football boss Danny Daly said on Monday, when the trade period launched, there was no hard-and-fast AFL ruling that prevented Fagan from being in contact with the list management team during trade period but he wouldn't be involved.
The Lions are hoping to secure Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley and Hawthorn sharpshooter Jack Gunston.
"He'll (Fagan) obviously concentrate on what he needs to concentrate on with the investigation," Daly told reporters.
"There's a bit of work to get through there as you can imagine.
"I haven't spoken to him at all about the players coming into the organisation, the Dunkleys and the Gunstons et cetera. I'm not sure he's spoken to them either.
"We'll just continue working through what we need to and Chris will just concentrate on what he needs to concentrate on over the next few weeks."
Given Brisbane players and staff are on holidays, Daly said the club's board had time to decide what they might do if Fagan wasn't back at his post for the start of pre-season.
"It's only early doors but as a footy club we've spoken about a few 'what-ifs' and what might happen," he said.
"But as far as we're concerned, once we know where the investigation lands and how long it might take, we'll keep working through what we need to do."
North Melbourne counterpart Brady Rawlings didn't have any concerns about Clarkson's absence as the Kangaroos prepare to haggle with Port Adelaide over Jason Horne-Francis and attempt to bring in Fremantle pair Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker.
"No, we've got our list management team that's been in place for quite a while," Rawlings told reporters.
"We've got Todd Viney, who's joined us recently, who's an expert in this area as well. So we think we're pretty well placed."
Rawlings wouldn't be drawn on whether Clarkson's absence and the subsequent uncertainty had contributed to Horne-Francis' request to be traded to South Australia.