Elliott was close to joining the Lions, touring the facilities in the lead up to the trade period.
He eventually decided to re-sign with the Magpies, knocking back offers from Brisbane and Melbourne.
Fagan praised Elliott for reaching out to him directly when his mind was made up.
“He actually rang me himself and told me he wasn’t going to come and told me the reasons why and showed a lot of character on his behalf,” he told SEN Mornings.
“I fully understood because I always thought it was a 50-50 thing, it nearly always is, and sometimes it rolls your way and sometimes it doesn’t.
“When it does (roll your way) you feel elation and when you don’t you feel disappointed, but you move on because you know why the player didn’t want to do it.”
Fagan added that football clubs move on from failed trade acquisition attempts quickly, but do feel the sting initially.
“I think you feel a little bit of disappointment at first because the club puts a bit of effort in to try and convince that player to come to your club, but I think there’s a practical side to it,” he said.
“I’ve always thought it is a really tough thing for a player to leave a club, particularly if he loves a club.
“I mean, Jamie had no beef with Collingwood, he was just considering his options so it was always going to be a big move for him to come up to Brisbane.
“He had some level of attraction because he had a brother who lived up here and all that sort of stuff and he liked our footy club.”
Elliott re-signed with Collingwood on a two-year deal following 16 games and 26 goals in 2019.
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