Carlton chief executive Steven Trigg has denied the club have sounded out Fremantle coach Ross Lyon about helming the Blues next season.
Speculation Lyon was being courted by Carlton surfaced on Tuesday after he was seen in Perth meeting former Blues premiership player and St Kilda coach Ken Sheldon, who is on the five-man selection panel tasked with finding Mick Malthouse's replacement for next season.
Afterwards, the Dockers coach labelled suggestions that he's interested in the vacant role as "quite distasteful".
"They're clearly just firming up their processes and (asking) about the requirements of the job," Lyon told Network Ten.
"So it was really nothing mischievous and certainly nothing to do with me."
On Wednesday, Trigg reiterated it was nothing more than a catch-up between two old friends who have a long-standing working relationship.
"In fact that took me by surprise," he told Melbourne radio station SEN.
"The first thing I knew about that was when I got a call from a journalist last night asking me the question.
"So I rang Ken and just asked him what the state of play was and his simple answer was `I meet with Ross several times a year, we're old mates from St Kilda days'.
"So no, we didn't ask him the question.
"That little bit of publicity that flared up last night is two old mates catching up."
Trigg said Lyon wasn't on the Blues' radar because he is contracted with the table-topping Dockers until the end of 2017.
The chief executive added he "couldn't be more pleased" with the rallying efforts of interim coach John Barker and the team's performance over the past few weeks.
In his third game in charge, Barker took the Blues to an upset four-point win over Port Adelaide - the club's second of the season.
The resurgence continued on Sunday with a 34-point drubbing of Gold Coast.
"That's beaut, but at the same time it's really important for us to be able to lift our eyes and have a look around and try and find the very best coach and coaching team for Carlton beyond 2015," Trigg said.
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