ESSENDON captain Jobe Watson looks set to miss the next three weeks with a hamstring injury as the Bombers count the cost of their fifth consecutive defeat.

Hawthorn thrashed Essendon by 65 points on Friday night at the MCG, with Watson missing the entire second half after injuring his left hamstring, David Myers injuring his right hamstring, and Sam Lonergan being substituted out of the game in the second quarter with a knee injury.

While Watson and Myers are expected to miss the next three games, Essendon coach James Hird fears the 24-year-old Lonergan, who tore the medial ligament in his left knee, will be sidelined for the remainder of the season.

The loss pushed Essendon outside of the top eight for the first time this season, and with competition leaders Geelong looming next week, Hird called on his players to show resilience.

"They will need to cope with performances like that and get better from them," he said after the match.

"The boys are very disappointed, as we all are, as our supporters are, so we have to get back up. We have a huge game against the best team in the competition, the side on top of the ladder in eight days’ time."

While the injuries out of Friday night’s loss will undoubtedly hurt, Hird said he was confident his side could bounce back in the coming weeks against the Cats, Richmond and Adelaide.

"It was not a great night, but we will bounce back; I have got no doubt that we will bounce back. We will work hard during the week, we will learn from that game and we are a work in progress across our whole football club.

"We are going to have some disappointments, and tonight is as disappointing as we have had along the journey. There is no doubt that sitting in the box, halfway through the second quarter, you get pretty frustrated and you get pretty disappointed. But we are going to learn from it and we are going to get better."

While Essendon was comprehensively outplayed in the first half, the Bombers worked harder in the second half, kicking eight goals to nine after the major break. But it was the first half, and especially the second quarter when Hawthorn kicked eight goals to one, that caused the damage.

"Particularly in the second quarter, we didn't look like getting (the ball) off them. Once they had a couple of possessions they opened us up through the middle of the ground," Hird said.

After consecutive six-day breaks between the Fremantle and North Melbourne games and then in the lead-up to Friday night, the Bombers now have an eight-day respite before taking on the Cats.

Hird defended ruckman-forward Paddy Ryder, who had just eight disposals against the Hawks. The coach rejected suggestions Ryder would need to be dropped back to the VFL to find more consistent form.

"It was Brent Stanton six weeks ago, and it’s Paddy Ryder now. It was Dustin Fletcher three weeks ago; you can't blame one player for a performance like that," Hird said.

“Paddy didn't have a great night, but the ball wasn't coming in the way I would have liked the ball to come in as a forward. When you are outnumbered one on three, it's pretty hard to win that contest."