The Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne are just short of where they want to be, but their confidence is growing at the AFL mid-season break.

The Bulldogs brushed aside struggling West Coast in the second half to boost their percentage with a 10-goal win late on Sunday, ending the first weekend of the split round.

Their 17.17 (119) to 9.5 (59) win left the `Dogs on eight wins, half a game outside the top four.

They are yet to hit top form this season, but the Bulldogs have won their past two games and are starting to play with more fluency.

"Except for (top side) Geelong who have obviously put a gap between the rest with the way they're playing, the results show the competition's even," said Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade.

"We'd love to be another game ahead of where we are, but it's such an even season there's going to be teams knocked off that don't expect to lose.

"We have a couple of tough games now after the break and we need to regroup and attack those.

"There were some very good signs last week and there were some good signs today ... we are not far away from what we'd like to do, we've got a lot of improvement left still."

The Eagles now have the same number of wins - three - as bottom side Richmond.

Also on Sunday, North Melbourne scored their third-straight win, beating Port Adelaide by 36 points.

They are on the same number of wins as seventh-placed Carlton and eighth side Hawthorn, although North's poor percentage of 83.63 is a big disadvantage.

North's 7-6 record is the first time this season they have had a positive win-loss tally.

Captain Brent Harvey was again brilliant in the 19.15 (129) to 14.9 (93), while Port's season is in freefall with six straight losses.

The Kangaroos and Hawks are pushing up the ladder, but Carlton have big problems in the wake of Saturday night's nine-point loss to Fremantle at Etihad Stadium.

Star ruckman Matthew Kruezer has a season-ending knee injury and the 14.12 (96) to 12.15 (87) result was the Blues' second straight loss.

By contrast, the Dockers consolidated their top-fourth placing with their ninth win.

Also on Saturday night, Richmond scored their third win in four matches and had successive wins for the first time since round 18 last season.

They beat Brisbane by 19 points, 15.15 (105) to 12.14 (86), meaning the Lions have lost eight of their nine matches.

The split round opened with one of the games of the season, a 16-point win to Hawthorn over Essendon at the MCG.

Lance Franklin kicked one of the greatest goals of all time in his bag of five and was best afield as the Hawks won 14.18 (102) to 13.8 (86), extending their winning streak to six.

The round continues later this week with another Friday night special at the MCG, where Geelong and St Kilda have their grand final rematch.

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