Despite assurances the club would not stand in his way if a senior position were to beckon, Montgomery was at pains not to become a distraction as the Blues enter a crucial part of the season beginning with a match against Richmond on Saturday.
“I certainly have spoken to Port Adelaide - that’s true - but so have probably a dozen others,” Montgomery said from Visy Park.
“They’re just doing their due diligence and they need to do that. I was happy to sit down with them and listen to their thoughts, but I’m certainly back on the job head down, bum up.
“Certainly my short-term future is here at Carlton and I’m really focusing on right here and right now. We’ve got a massive game [coming] and I wouldn’t want to take the focus away from what we’re trying to do here on Saturday.
“I was happy and pleased to sit down and talk about footy with them, but that’s about the extent of it so far.”
Montgomery, who played 128 games for Port including the 2004 premiership, maintains he is unsure if a career as a senior coach is part of his future, but admitted the Power was an attractive proposition if he were to move in that direction.
“I think everyone who aspires to be a coach would love to coach one of the teams or the team they played for,” he said.
“It certainly would be a really good result, but it’s not something that I’m looking too deeply at right at the moment.
“I’ve got a big job to do. We’ve got to get into the finals and we’ve got to start playing some good footy again. That’s what I told him and I’ll be doing whatever I can to get that going.”
The field of candidates to replace Mark Williams from next season includes caretaker coach Matthew Primus and is also thought to include Western Bulldogs’ assistant Leon Cameron and Essendon assistant Alan Richardson.
