CARLTON president Stephen Kernahan has told his Collingwood counterpart, Eddie McGuire, to mind his own business over claims that the Blues have received special salary cap treatment.

And he has taken a pot shot at the Magpies over the future of power forward Travis Cloke.

McGuire goaded Carlton during the week with comments over Chris Judd's lucrative contract with Visy and the Blues' history of breaching the salary cap.

Kernahan, speaking at the president's function before the match between Carlton and St Kilda at Etihad Stadium, told McGuire to worry about his own club.

"I'm sure the AFL boss, Andrew Demetriou, is more than a little surprised that one of the more experienced presidents is accusing the AFL of showing preferential treatment to another AFL club," Kernahan said.

"Ed, we'll get on with our business, you get on with yours. And sign every player if you want to keep them."

The latter comment appeared to be a dig over the future of Cloke, who is out of contract and has been heavily linked in recent days with Carlton.

"While my only thoughts this week have been for our football club and for (sacked coach Brett Ratten), I have had fleeting moments of hearing the rantings of the president from the black and white mob," Kernahan said.

"While I won't go into that - it's against my rules to speak about what goes on at other clubs - I will just say one thing and make it perfectly clear.

"Carlton have their TPP (total player payments) checked off every year by the AFL.

"The AFL bloke in charge of that ... is Ken Wood - I'm not kidding you, he could be a Nazi because he's hard at it.

"He keeps that TPP absolutely, rigorously defended."

McGuire's comments during the week, in which he questioned the AFL's policing of Carlton's payments, helped fuel tension over whether the Blues would sign former Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse to lead the team after the sacking of Ratten.

Malthouse's likely appointment has bolstered the view that Cloke may end up at Visy Park. The forward kicked five goals in a return to form in Collingwood's victory over Essendon on Saturday night.

McGuire, commenting on Carlton's interest in Cloke, said on Triple M this week: "How does Carlton get that into their salary cap? They've got Judd, they've got (Bryce) Gibbs, they've got (Marc) Murphy."

McGuire said he wanted to know how Judd's deal with Visy worked.

Kernahan also used his president's address to thank Ratten for giving his all during his five-year tenure as Carlton.

He made special mention of the 'professional' way in which Ratten had conducted himself since his sacking.