Carlton CEO Steven Trigg has delivered a ringing endorsement of coach Mick Malthouse but says the club has "other priorities" before it turns attention to the coach's long-term future.
Malthouse, who is out of contract at the end of this season, said on Thursday night that debate around his future at the Blues would be a distraction for his players and assistant coaches.
The Blues hierarchy has declared talks would not take place until the second half of the season but Trigg disputed the players would be distracted on match day by the coach's contract.
"I think if it was fleshed out with Mick, I have no doubt he would say when a player has his head over the footy he's not thinking about that contract," Trigg said on Friday following the club's season launch.
"It will be on their minds because frankly you guys (media) will bring it up.
"We need experience at the steering wheel in coaching. He's got it and he's certainly doing a fantastic job.
"We want to get the season away, we've got a lot of other priorities, and he's got a full season of his contract to run."
Malthouse, who is set to break Collingwood great Jock McHale's all-time record for games coached in round five, spoke about his contract situation on Thursday night and said it was not a distraction for him.
However, after coaching at Collingwood in 2011 through the conjecture about his handover to Nathan Buckley, he said the team would be sidetracked by it at times this season.
"Naivety will say it won't be a distraction for the players, [but] it will be, because I have been through this at Collingwood and I know it was a distraction," he said on The Footy Show.
"I am more than concerned about my fellow assistant coaches … because I know they are all out [of contract].
"Whether they are worried about it, they haven't explained that, but I am worried for them."
Despite the coach's position, Trigg remained steadfast that a firm timeline would not be set for negotiations to open.
"You guys want to pin us down to a date, I'm not going to give you a date," he said.
"It'll take care of itself some time later at a date that's yet to be specified.
"But I want to underline to Carlton people that he's doing a wonderful job preparing a relatively young and inexperienced team."
