Shellshocked Richmond coach Damien Hardwick likened his side's insipid 103-point AFL thrashing by Carlton on Saturday to a day of "shifting chairs on the Titanic".

But the saddest aspect for Hardwick was that his players had jumped the sinking ship by halftime in a 28.16 (184) to 12.9 (81) defeat he rated one of the worst in his time at the club.

On a day Richmond were raising money from fans at the MCG for their debt-erasing Fighting Tiger Fund, supporters were treated to the curl-up-and-die Tigers instead.

As red-hot Carlton shored up their top four spot in style, the Tigers coach - looking devastated by what he had just witnessed - apologised for his team's performance and accused his players of lacking effort.

"It's the first time this season we haven't had a crack," Hardwick said.

"For the people who are putting in their hard-earned dollars to get us back to where we belong, to dish up that performance is very disappointing."

Rated finals contenders just weeks earlier, the Tigers were torched from the first bounce by a superb Carlton performance.

The Blues had 13 individual goalkickers - eight of them multiple scorers led by small forward Eddie Betts with five goals.

But skipper Chris Judd, hard-nut Mitch Robinson and ruckman Robbie Warnock were the prime movers.

Carlton dominated the centre clearances and stoppages - Warnock and sidekick Matthew Kreuzer winning virtually every hitout to advantage and Judd and Robinson making out like bandits.

The crispness of the Blues' midfield delivery to their forwards was a feature, as well as the ability of their midfielders to boot multiple goals.

Robinson, Judd, Marc Murphy and Kade Simpson all kicked two goals each to complement Betts and four-goal forward Andrew Walker.

Judd also had 31 possessions and 10 tackles, with Robinson grabbing 30 touches.

Richmond went from outclassed in the first half to completely uncompetitive in the second.

The third quarter was a rout as the Blues cut loose with a nine goals to two term to build an 89-point lead by the final change.

And they put the pedal down even harder in the final term to extend their winning margin beyond 100 points.

Forward Jack Riewoldt booted four goals for the Tigers, whose defeat was made more flattering by six goals in final quarter junk-time.

So devastated was Hardwick he promised he would not review the game with his players.

"I just spoke to the players and said 'I don't ever want to speak about that game again' ... there's no point dwelling on that rubbish," Hardwick said.

"Bin it, it's not us. We're not 100 points worse a side than those guys.

"You feel like you're shifting chairs on the Titanic - moving players to cover A, B and C.

"You're just chasing your tail the whole day - that's what we felt like in the coaches' box."

Carlton coach Brett Ratten said he was extremely happy with his side's overall performance, especially following the loss to West Coast last weekend.

"We challenged the group about how you respond from a performance of last week's calibre and to do what we did today was outstanding," Ratten said.

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