Mick Malthouse will not decide whether he is interested in a return to AFL coaching until the end of the current season.

Malthouse has been strongly linked to Carlton, if the Blues’ board decides to move on incumbent Brett Ratten in the wake of the shock loss to Gold Coast on Saturday.

Ratten is contracted until the end of 2013, but Carlton’s failure to qualify for the finals has intensified speculation on his future.

Malthouse, 58, says he has not ruled out the prospect of returning to senior coaching, but would not do so until he had consulted with his family.

He said even if offers were made through his manager Peter Sidwell, he did not expect to be informed until he was ready to consider them.

And the three-time premiership coach with West Coast and Collingwood said if he decided against coaching in 2013, it was virtually certain he would not coach again at senior level.

“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,” Malthouse told Fairfax Radio on Monday.

Malthouse said he had been asked by family members whether he wanted to return to coaching because of the mounting speculation.

“They’ve all got a different view – and they have different views from different times,” he said.

“.. I’ve always said `never say never’, but it doesn’t mean I’m close to it.

“I’ve got to look at it – is it a good lifestyle, is it going to be the lifestyle I want for my family?”

Nathan Buckley succeeded Malthouse as Collingwood coach this year.