The Brumbies board will continue negotiations in the coming weeks after it was confirmed Fagan would not make a cross-code switch to link with the Canterbury Bulldogs.

Fairfax Media revealed earlier this month Fagan had been asked to apply to be the Bulldogs' new boss to replace Todd Greenberg, who will move into a new role with NRL management in July.

But the Bulldogs announced a left-field replacement on Wednesday, unveiling former New Zealand Netball chief executive Raelene Castle as the first female leader of an NRL club in almost 20 years.

The announcement clears the way for Fagan and the Brumbies board to ramp up negotiations about extending his tenure.

Fagan has been the Brumbies' chief executive since the end of 2005. His contract expires at the end of this year.

Brumbies chairman Sean Hammond said the Bulldogs' interest in securing Fagan as a leader had not affected the board's stance on his future.

The board is reluctant to put a time frame on when a decision will be made. But it's understood they're keen to work with Fagan to finalise the club's future direction in the coming months.

''Andrew is doing a great job and we're just doing the normal thing of sitting down, reflecting and looking to the future,'' Hammond said.

''We start our planning at the start of the year, we knew Andrew's contract was expiring in December so we're working through that and nothing has changed.

''Good people get approached from time to time, it's part of the business and no different to any other business.

''We're working through our strategies in a diligent businesslike way; Andrew has put an enormous amount of energy into everything over the past seven years and this is just a normal process to go through.''

Fagan was one of four candidates in the running to take over from Greenberg. It's understood only one of the four had a rugby league background with the Bulldogs keen to look outside the NRL circle to find a new leader.

Greenberg is an admirer of Fagan as a sports administrator and it's understood he was supportive of the push to have Fagan as his replacement.

Fagan was approached by an independent recruiting agency and asked to apply for the Bulldogs post. He initially rebuffed the request but was interviewed as part of shortlist to replace Greenberg.

It's understood the Bulldogs board viewed Fagan and Greenberg as similar chief executives and instead of sticking with a similar model they opted to break new ground with Castle in charge.