Richmond coach Terry Wallace admits he was given a rude wake-up call when his Tigers were systematically dismantled by a rampant Sydney at the SCG.

Having not made the finals since 2001, the Tigers had been showing signs of life this season, drawing with the high-flying Western Bulldogs and being competitive against fellow heavyweights Geelong and Hawthorn before thrashing Essendon last week.

But their slowly-increasing confidence crumbled with Sunday's 82-point humbling at the hands of the Swans.

The Tigers managed just one goal to halftime compared to Sydney's 13 and ultimately succumbed 21.13 (139) to 8.9 (57).

"I couldn't be more disappointed," Wallace said after the game. "We came up here really to see if we could get our season really alive.

"I think we've been really good and pleased with how we can compete with the best teams in the competition for six or seven weeks.

"We thought we had taken some real strides forward but to be clinically taken apart as we were in the first half is unacceptable.

"Certainly today we took a big step backwards."

Richmond could barely get their hands on the ball in the first half and when they did, were repeatedly confronted by a wall of hardened, aggressive Sydney players.

Ryan O'Keefe was outstanding all game for the home side, while Michael O'Loughlin, Amon Buchanan and Jarrad McVeigh all kicked three goals.

Once again the Swans are enjoying relative anonymity away from the football centres of Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, but they are quietly building their season and find themselves two points outside the top four after round 10.

With games against West Coast, St Kilda and Melbourne to come over the next three weeks, Sydney are perfectly placed for another tilt at September action.

Considering the Swans have been playing without Barry Hall for six weeks, coach Paul Roos could barely be more pleased with his team's position.

"I think at the moment we've got our best team apart from Hally and a couple coming back like (Nic) Fosdike," he said.

"But we've got a pretty talented team and there's been improvement from guys like McVeigh and (Paul) Bevan and new guys coming in like Marty Mattner and Henry Playfair.

"I really did rate Richmond coming in. It was a very, very good effort."

His mood was in stark contrast to Wallace's.

"(It was a) big shock," the Richmond boss said.

"I spoke to a few of our people and said 'could you see that coming?

"It's their pressure that makes you play in the manner in which we played.

"But, no we didn't see that coming."

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