EMERGING Bulldog defender Dylan Addison could miss the rest of the season if initial diagnosis on his right knee is confirmed by scans this week.

Addison went down early in the final term after attempting to tackle Carlton’s Marc Murphy. He was helped from the field by two trainers.

“It doesn’t look great. He’s probably a grade three medial (ligament) we think at this stage so, even if it’s a grade three medial he’ll miss the rest of the year,” coach Rodney Eade said.

“It’s an 8-to-10 week (injury), probably longer.”

Addison’s injury rubbed salt into the Dogs' wound, after they coughed up a seven-goal lead early in the third term to lose by almost five goals.

The Blues kicked 12 of the last 14 goals, including the final nine of the match.

Eade said the inability of his side to stem the bleeding was the most disappointing aspect of a disastrous second half.

“We got away from some basic fundamentals that served us well in the first two-and-a-half quarters,” he said.

For the second week in a row the Dogs tired badly in the second half in a trend Eade admitted is of some concern.

The Dogs have been outscored 26 goals to eight in the second half in the past two weeks.

“We seemed to be running on heavy legs but the opposition was running on top of the ground,” he said.

“They certainly played very well and deserved their victory.”

With six of the eight results in round 17 considered upsets, the Bulldog coach said the ladder did not reflect the evenness of teams below top-of-the-table Geelong.

“The ladder doesn’t give an accurate picture of the evenness of the competition,” he said.

“We were able to eke some wins out early and that’s going to serve us well going into September. Some other teams who couldn’t (win) early on ... are starting to play well. The fight for, at least the other four spots (in the eight) is open for grabs. There are no easy games and it’s hard for every team to be up every week. Fortunately for Geelong they had a rough period but were able to win games, but most of the sides, when they have down periods, they end up losing them.”

Eade praised the game of Ryan Hargrave, who kept Eddie Betts to nine possessions and no goals, but said the side generally lacked consistency.

“You don’t get to 37 points up and not having some blokes well,” he said.

“But, for consistency through the four quarters….probably in the end our forwards were looking dangerous, but lack of good delivery and some poor efforts up there as well took the gloss of their game.”