Hawthorn assistant coach Brendon Bolton has been appointed as a member of Carlton staff in a mould-breaking deal that doesn't "put a sunset" on his time as senior coach.
 
Bolton, who will leave the Hawks prior to their round 22 match against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday, welcomed the deal, which allows both he and the Blues to end their partnership at any time.

Blues CEO Steven Trigg employed then Adelaide coach Neil Craig on a similar agreement in 2011, which was seen as radical at the time.

"There's no contract per se in the traditional sense," Trigg said on Tuesday as Bolton was officially unveiled at Carlton headquarters.

"We don't have a contract. Brendon, like myself and my management team, goes onto staff.

"It's as simple as some protection in there for Brendon and his family and some protection in there for Carlton, but otherwise we go into this with a long-term horizon and a partnership that is an on-staff partnership.

"Brendon's approach to that and ours married up to that perfectly. We think it's a terrific outcome."

Bolton was unanimously endorsed by the Carlton board on Monday night after being recommended for the role by the Blues' coaching sub-committee.

The 36-year-old said he had mixed emotions when he was told on Monday night he had won the job ahead of interim coach John Barker, who will coach the Blues for the final two home-and-away games.

His thoughts remained with Hawthorn colleague Brett Ratten, whose son Cooper was tragically killed in a car crash last Sunday.

"Yesterday was a hard day for Brett and then last night I tried to feel a little bit of elation," Bolton said on Tuesday.

"But today it's genuine excitement at trying to lay a platform for sustained success.

"It's been a different day. I only ran (Hawthorn) training a few hours ago."

Damian Carroll will step into the assistant coaching role vacated by Bolton as the Hawks prepare for their final two home-and-away games and this year’s finals series.

Hawthorn CEO Stuart Fox said after consultation with both Bolton and Carlton, it was decided it would not be feasible for the new Blues coach to "split his focus across Carlton and (the Hawks') upcoming finals series".

Bolton proved the difficulty of such a task when he had a slip of the tongue explaining the scenario.

"If you look at the mechanics of it, my mind is going to be here at Hawthorn," he said.

Bolton made a point of thanking Hawthorn football manager Chris Fagan and senior coach Alastair Clarkson, who had taught him "how to innovate".

He refused to put a timeframe on when the Blues would experience an on-field spike, simply saying the club would "invest in people and constant development and see where that goes".

He was adamant he was ruthless enough to turn around a list that has been heavily criticised for the past two seasons.

"I think leadership is around people and process," he said.

"People, you've got to bring them with you, (and) process is about getting the job done.

At times you've got to be ruthless to get the process done.

"It's a real balancing act bringing people with you and I've got an idea around how I'm going to go about that."

The football Carlton will seek to play under Bolton will be "around collective offence and defence and having a balance of both", but he was keen to pick his new players' brains about their views on footy.

One of his first jobs will be sitting down with list manager Stephen Silvagni to get a deeper understanding of the squad, which he had already analysed in nine hours of conversation with the selection sub-committee.

"It'll give me some breathing space to make some informed decisions and have lots of conversations with people like Stephen Silvagni," he said.

"(But) I'm not going to sit here and talk about the list in detail, because there's two more games to play."

CEO Trigg, who was also a member of the selection sub-committee, said the Blues had warmed to Bolton's "bubbly personality", and it had been a factor in his appointment.

"It is an infectious personality and there's a steely personality behind it that we garnered," he said.

"There is a focus that’s there. We warmed to the personality, but it's so much more than that.

"You have to warm to the person, clearly, because we're going to be working closely together. It was a factor in the end."