Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy was true to his word when he said post-match on Saturday night that his players faced a tough week on the track in the wake of its ""soft"" loss to the Kangaroos. Essendon’s senior group was put through a searching 90-minute session – something rarely seen on a Monday night.

And Sheedy wasn’t stepping back from his threat to drop senior players despite the fact there is no VFL game this weekend.

""If a player or two shouldn't play because their attitude and their form's not spot on then they won't get selected,"" Sheedy said.

""We've probably only got three or four players in the VFL side you could bring in and maybe one back from injury. It's Hird's 200th game so we've got to work out what we feel is the right sort of team to represent a great player of this club.

""We've said whoever trains well this week and puts their hand up will stay in the side. It's all about attitude and if that's the case I wouldn't want to put a foot wrong on the training track this week, I can assure you.""

Sheedy said he wouldn’t be swayed from playing the ‘kids’ despite last weekend’s result.

""We played pretty well for 90 minutes maybe. We made a few stuff-ups to really give the Kangaroos a bit of confidence to get back in the game. They did and they grabbed the opportunity so we've really got to make sure we don't let that happen again,"" he said.

""Our priority is to make the finals and secondly, to bring the next group of four or five players in. You can't keep coming fifth and sixth and runner up in say 2001, you've just got to keep changing that side to get the right mix and give the young blokes along with the senior blokes that right sort of experience and youthfulness.

""We're working on making that happen. Every time we put someone in he gets knocked out, Teddy Richards this time and Jason Winderlich about two or three weeks ago.

""Richards deserved his game and played very well until he got knocked out. If he hadn't have got knocked out he might have been the person that could have changed the game for us, you just don't know that.

Sheedy said Hird’s seven possession-game against the Kangaroos was out of character and just something that can happen to any player from time to time.

""I just think it's like some people who go to work every now and then and have an ordinary day. It just expands it when it's an AFL player or a person in the Olympic Games or a golf player or a tennis player, because you're on the stage and you just can't afford to have them,"" he said.