CARLTON coach Mick Malthouse's tenure at the Blues could soon reach an end if his side continues to produce disappointing performances, CEO Steven Trigg has admitted.

"There's potentially a point (where it ends)," Trigg told radio station 3AW ahead of the Blues' Friday night clash against Geelong.

"In striving to be respectful to Mick, we're trying to get to a situation where we work our way out of this."

Malthouse's job at the Blues is under increasing pressure after criticising the club for comments made about the way it chose to publicly express to fans that it was indeed "rebuilding".

Rebuild a dirty word for Malthouse 

Trigg said he was "surprised" by Malthouse's comments, especially considering the coach had been privy to the list management meetings over the summer.

Trigg also said he would speak to Malthouse, who is out of contract at year's end, about his comments.

"They surprised me, because I felt that we had been on message for quite some time and the amount of work we've got to do with our footy club and the list," Trigg said.

"Mick's been involved in every list management meeting over the summer and pre-season, and therefore knows the work that's in front of us and the plan that's in hand to build Carlton back to a dominant position.

"He also knows that we chose to deliberately use that phrase (rebuild).

"I personally said to him that if we're going to use this terminology we have to be crystal-clear that it can be managed, and he was with that."

The Blues find themselves on the bottom of the ladder with just one win after seven rounds.

Carlton has been belted by Collingwood (75 points), lost to the lowly Brisbane Lions (by nine points) and got thrashed by Greater Western Sydney (78 points) in the past three weeks.

Trigg said Malthouse's infamous pre-season declaration that Carlton would not lose a game in 2015 forced the Blues into publically stating they were in 'rebuild mode'.

"We chose to call that out, strategically, because there were some mixed messages," Trigg said.

"Our members were saying, 'Where are we at?' and I was getting a lot of correspondence about this.

"After a couple of rounds of confusion we wanted to be really clear about it and called it out.

"It had nothing to do with dampening expectations, it had everything to do with being honest with our fans."

Trigg said the board would stick with its decision to review Malthouse's coaching contract in the latter half of the season.