On the back of impressive victories over Geelong at Telstra Stadium and Brisbane at the Gabba, the Swans improved to a 4-3 record with their mauling of the Tigers.
In the process, Sydney 28.12 (180) defeated Richmond 9.8 (62), recording the Swans' highest score since 1987 and their biggest-ever victory over the Tigers.
Richmond, already without skipper Kane Johnson, vice-captain Nathan Brown and Darren Gaspar due to injury, lost Andrew Kellaway and Ray Hall before the match, forcing the Tigers to field a vastly inexperienced team.
The Tigers' line-up included eight players with fewer than 20 games experience, including four players who have debuted in 2006.
But focusing on the Tigers' absentees takes too much gloss off Sydney's performance, and it's becoming more apparent that the Swans require a few home-and-away rounds to swing into gear.
They were close to their cohesive best of 2005 in demolishing the Tigers. The pattern was set early when the Swans slotted four goals in the first seven minutes to race to a 24-point lead. Richmond had barely touched the ball.
Sydney captain Barry Hall took full advantage of the Tigers' undersized defence, finishing with five goals after being manned by Joel Bowden for the whole game. In reality, the Tigers didn't have another option for the tough defensive task.
But it wasn't just Hall who feasted on Richmond's woes. Small forward Ryan O'Keefe booted four goals while Nick Malceski - who didn't play in last year's premiership team - finished with three goals.
Brett Kirk was simply outstanding with 27 possessions, while Amon Buchanan was hot on his heels with 26 touches, 11 marks and two goals.
Sydney's dominance lasted throughout the match as it led by 22 points at quarter-time, 52 points at the main break and 77 points at the final change before the eventual winning margin of 118 points.
The final margin even exceeded Richmond's limp round one effort when the Tigers came under a barrage of criticism by losing to the Western Bulldogs by 115 points.
The Tigers settled after Sydney's early onslaught but the ascendancy had been determined. Kirk was dominating in the middle, winning the hard ball and finishing with 13 touches for the opening term.
Two late goals for the Tigers - including a terrific long kick by Troy Simmonds in the left forward pocket and a great snap by Matthew Richardson - kept Richmond in touch but 8.0 from the Swans in the opening stanza was like a knock-out blow.
Sydney advanced to a 41-point lead at the 19-minute mark of the second term but Richardson's second goal and almost a third - only for his kick to be touched on the line - raised small hopes of a Richmond revival.
However, the Swans booted the next three goals to set up a match-winning 52-point lead at half-time. By the main break, Kirk had 17 possessions and five tackles while Buchanan had 16 touches and seven marks.
By midway through the third quarter Hall snagged his fourth goal and the Swans led by 77 points. It was getting ugly, and quickly.
Sydney absolutely dominated the final stanza, turning a solid beating of the Tigers into an absolute slaughter.
Interestingly, prior to Saturday's match the Tigers had won just one of their past nine matches at Telstra Dome, compared to notching eight victories from 10 games at the MCG.
Sydney coach Paul Roos was naturally delighted with his team's performance, particularly as it came on such a big milestone day for Paul Williams.
"It was a really good day, a really good four-quarter effort," he said. "We had no passengers and it was a really good team effort."
"It's very pleasing for a coach and particularly pleasing in Willo's 300th game. It was a big milestone for him and something he will now be able to look back on with fond memories."
Playing with such an inexperienced outfit, Richmond coach Terry Wallace said the Tigers needed "some early encouragement" to keep confidence levels. However, the opposite occurred.
"Obviously we lost some players on the eve of the game. You hope blokes can come in. You hope your senior blokes can keep their resolve the way that you would like them to keep their resolve," Wallace said.
"I think sometimes when that happens you need some encouragement early. When they kicked the first three or four goals in the opening first couple of minutes, it looked like that really took the air out of a lot of our boys' tyres."
"From that stage I didn't think we ever recovered. We played against the premiers who are getting back into really good form, who were really sharp. Their skills were outstanding."
"They never missed a target. They never missed a goal opportunity. Everything they did was very, very slick, very, very good. We didn't deal with that. We didn't handle that."
RICHMOND: 4.2 6.6 8.7 9.8 (62)
SYDNEY: 8.0 15.4 21.6 28.12 (180)
GOALS – Richmond: Richardson 2, Pettifer 2, Simmonds, Stafford, Hyde, Hughes, Tambling
Sydney: Hall 5, O’Keefe 4, Malceski 3, O’Loughlin 3, Ablett 2, Goodes 2, McVeigh 2, Buchanan 2, Davis, J Bolton, Richards, Kirk, Williams
BEST – Richmond: Foley, Raines, Hyde, Richardson
Sydney: Kirk, Buchanan, Hall, O’Loughlin, Goodes, Ablett, Kennelly, O’Keefe, Malceski
INJURIES – Richmond: Nil Sydney: Nil
CHANGES – Richmond: Hall replaced in selected side by Jackson. Kellaway replaced in selected side by McGuane. Sydney: Nil.
UMPIRES: McBurney, Grun, Jeffery
REPORTS - Nil.
CROWD - 36,477 at Telstra Dome
