FORMER Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse has dramatically raised the pressure on Carlton to make a decision over the future of coach Brett Ratten.

Malthouse said if he didn't coach next year, he would never coach again.

"If not next year, then I won't coach," Malthouse told Neil Mitchell on 3AW on Monday morning.

"Even though I'm watching it (the game) through the eyes of a commentator, I [also] watch it in the eyes of a coach.

"But the game will shift and I don't want to make a fool of myself and I don't want to let people down."

Ratten, who Malthouse described as "a really decent person", is contracted for next season, but the Blues' loss to Gold Coast on the weekend that ended their finals chances has put his future in doubt.

Malthouse, who said on Sunday he still had the energy to coach at AFL level, confirmed on Monday that he hadn't received a personal approach from the Blues and was unaware if manager Peter Sidwell had.

"I spoke to him (Sidwell) months and months ago [and said], 'Don't involve me in anything because I don't want to be compromised in my [media] job, which I'm loving at the moment'.

"I know what speculation is like, I don't want to be caught up in it at this stage ... it's probably naivety."

However, Malthouse stressed he hadn't made a decision on whether he wanted to return to coaching, citing family and friends as the overriding factor in his decision.

"When you've had a family for so long involved in football and you can see the joy and you can see the heartache and the breaking points, you've got to keep asking yourself, really, do you intend to go right through that again," he said.

"I've tried to push it (the decision to coach) away into the back of my mind, knowing I don't want to make a decision until the season is comprehensively over.

"I've got to take everything into consideration; when you coach a football side you've got to dedicate every ounce of your energy and time - it's not 9-5 and then you switch off.

"If I have any doubt it will be detrimental to [my family's] health or wellbeing in any description I'm not going to do it."