Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy said after this afternoon’s loss to West Coast that vice-captain and two-time best and fairest winner Jason Johnson will almost certainly be dropped for next week’s game against Port Adelaide. Johnson had 18 disposals for the Bombers after starting on the bench but he clearly didn’t use the ball as well as Sheedy would have liked.

""He is not playing with a lot of confidence, Jason knows that. We had a talk to him during the week and he knew he had to play well this week to be in the side next week. I doubt he would be in the team next week,"" Sheedy said.

""It is not a tough decision and in fact I don’t make that decision, Jason does. He will probably get dropped next week and I think that is a fair enough comment. I think he is a person of tremendous character and he just needs to get his confidence back and work on his disposal.""

Sheedy said he would continue to play the ‘best young kids’ in a bid to build a side capable of winning a Premiership. He also said he would continue to encourage a brand of football that would win games and made the game enjoyable to watch.

""I want to build a team to win a Premiership. You can play that basketball crap all the time (Richmond against Adelaide)… you are kidding. This is a game of football and the way we played today we will still get bums on seats. I am playing to develop a team and history says I am not to bad at it,"" he said.

""I don’t coach Richmond, Terry can do what he wants to. You look at Terry and you look at me, we are very different people … I hope. If he wants to play a game of billiards up the back end he can. You get the four points but you might never go anywhere.

""Every match Laycock plays he will get better and you would think Courtney Johns would be better for playing today. Ricky Dyson will learn than you need to take your game to the next level when you are playing a team that played in last year’s Grand Final.""

Go to Bomber.tv to hear Sheedy's full post-match press conference.