The Tigers were caught off-guard by a strong first quarter from Ben Graham who pulled down four big marks and landed four goals to give his team a 32-point edge at quarter-time.
Darren Gaspar lasted only 25 minutes and was replaced by Ray Hall. Graham added two more majors in the last term to finish with six.
Despite the best efforts of skipper Wayne Campbell, Greg Tivendale who finished with 32 disposals, forward Andrew Krakouer and Nathan Brown, who kicked four goals, the Tigers were outscored in each of the four quarters.
Brad Ottens dominated the stoppages, and received useful support from Ben Marsh, in for the suspended Greg Stafford, but it was all to no avail.
The one genuine upside of the encounter was the fine debut of young Tom Roach, who did his father Michael proud.
The Tigers’ night was summed-up by an episode in the third quarter when Campbell could do nothing but rush a behind after surveying the scene in front of him.
What he was confronted with was a static Tigers outfit, offering no leads or drive out of the backline, a situation that hardly changed throughout the contest.
Nathan Brown did his best to straighten Richmond up but without Matthew Richardson in the goal-square, there was a lack of purpose to the Tigers’ attacking thrusts.
For the Cats, the likes of Cameron Ling and Joel Corey were outstanding, and Peter Riccardi turned back the clock with several blistering runs through the middle.
It was Richmond’s third-straight loss after starting the season in such positive fashion against Collingwood in round one.
The only opportunity for Richmond to get back in it was in the second term, when they managed to halt the Cats’ goal spree during a 15-minute period.
But they weren’t able to do any damage on the scoreboard themselves and went in to the long break 42-points adrift.
With the result virtually beyond doubt, the intensity dropped away in the second half and Geelong extended its advantage by one at the last change.
Richmond coach Danny Frawley was an obviously disappointed man afterwards, conceding that Graham had surprised him a little and that the poor start had proved the major difference in the finish.
“I think that you’ve got to give credit to them, we knew Graham had a really good record against us, but we weren’t expecting that,” Frawley said.
“We got the ball inside forward 50 four times to their four, we were three points and they were four goals. When you’re down on confidence somewhat, you need to get rewarded for effort, and in the first 10-15 minutes, we didn’t get that.”
“There was no excuse to finish off the quarter the way we did and the first half, that was really disappointing.”
The victory was Geelong's fourth-straight against the Tigers. In the next round, the Tigers host Adelaide.
GEELONG: 7.0 11.1 15.5 19.13 (127)
RICHMOND: 1.4 3.7 7.10 11.12 (78)
GOALS: Geelong: Graham 6, Kingsley 3, Haynes, Playfair, Mackie 2, Ling, Riccardi, Tenace, Mooney 1
Richmond: Brown 4, Ottens, Coughlan 2, Fiora, Gaspar, Tivendale 1
BEST: Geelong: Ling, Mooney, Harley, Graham, Corey, Scarlett, Riccardi
Richmond: Tivendale, Krakouer, Brown, Ottens, Hartigan
INJURIES: Geelong: Nil
Richmond: Nil
CHANGES: Geelong: Milburn (knee) replaced in the selected side by Rooke
Richmond: Nil
REPORTS: Nil
UMPIRES: Kennedy, Meredith and Nicholls
CROWD: 31,375 at Telstra Dome
