The Tigers kicked the first eight goals of the game and it appeared over as a contest by the first change; Richmond's greatest winning margin over Essendon – 74 points in 1970 and 1983 – was in clear danger when the Tigers led by a neat 50 points at half time.
But the Bombers finally started to win some contests in the third and kicked five consecutive majors either side of the long break.
It was back to 26 points at three-quarter time, but the Tigers tightened up in the last to secure the win.
Nathan Foley (32 disposals) was terrific in the centre for the Tigers, leading the game in clearances with five, and won the Yiooken Award for best on ground in the Dreamtime game, while Brett Deledio also got a lot of it and used it as well as ever.
Kayne Pettifer (two goals) and Shane Edwards (three goals) were good forward, especially early, and Nathan Brown kicked four.
For the Bombers, it was Brent Stanton who was a standout in the first half, but David Hille had a terrific third term, while Jobe Watson was effective. Matthew Lloyd booted four.
The Tigers were all over the Bombers from the first bounce. Pettifer gave off two goals with pin-point passes before kicking one himself, and at the first break the Tigers led by 28 points, with the Bombers unable to kick a major for the third time in their last five quarters.
The Tigers slotted a major inside the first minute of the second, a superb curling right-foot dribble form the right pocket from Brown, and then kicked another couple before 10 minutes was up.
Essendon finally got their first nearly 12 minutes into the second term, but then it was another couple to the Tigers before McVeigh got the margin back to 50 points at the long break.
The first goal of the third gave Essendon consecutive goals, then they made it three when Angus Monfries kicked truly, and four when Lloyd was paid a free kick just 10 metres out to give him his 850th career goal.
Five minutes later Lloyd added another.
But it appeared that the Bombers had fired all the shots in their locker in the third, and Richmond took control again in the last to run away with the win.
Next weekend, Richmond takes on Sydney at the SCG, while Essendon travels to Adelaide to take on the Crows.
Richmond 5.3 10.8 12.10 16.14 (110)
Essendon 0.5 2.6 8.8 10.12 (72)
GOALS
Richmond: Brown 3, Edwards 3, Pettifer 2, Richardson 2, Deledio, Foley, Hyde, Johnson, Pattison, White
Essendon: Lloyd 4, Hille, Neagle, McVeigh, Monfries, Nash, Stanton
BEST
Richmond: Foley, Deledio, Brown, Pettifer, White, Edwards, Richardson
Essendon: Hille, Lloyd, Watson
INJURIES
Essendon: Ricky Dyson (suspected appendicitis) replaced in selected side by Jay Nash
Richmond: Graham Polak replaced in selected side by Kayne Pettifer
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Donlon, Vozzo, Ryan
Official crowd: 60,333 at the MCG
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.
