Richmond beat West Coast by 15 points at Etihad Stadium to give caretaker coach Jade Rawlings a first-up win in the AFL and Ben Cousins a victory against his old side.

The Tigers began like they meant business, a blistering first term handing Rawlings a dream start since taking Terry Wallace's place in the hot seat, before Richmond ground out a 13.14 (92) to 11.11 (77) victory.

Richmond booted the first three goals of the game and their 24-point lead at quarter-time gave them a buffer the Eagles could not bridge, despite out-scoring the Tigers from there on.

Cousins made plain his intention to perform well against the club he played 238 games for before his sacking in 2007, with 10 disposals in the first quarter and a big finish, ending with 28 touches for the night.

But it was another ex-Eagle who was more damaging, as Mitch Morton's acrobatic marking and five goals - three in the first quarter and two at the start of the last - was telling.

Just as he did at West Coast, Cousins inspired big things out of his fellow midfielders, as Richard Tambling produced arguably his best game with 28 touches, including 14 in the first quarter, and a hand in his side's first four goals.

Nathan Foley and Shane Tuck also kept moving things Richmond's way, while Daniel Jackson did a great job shutting down West Coast star Daniel Kerr.

Cousins was congratulated by several of his former teammates after the game, but he had little obvious contact with them during the clash, other than giving Kerr a consoling pat after he conceded a 50-metre penalty.

The Eagles lifted after their tardy start and got within two goals just before three-quarter-time, but were never able to string together the goals to threaten Richmond's lead.

Josh Kennedy booted four goals for the Eagles and Mark LeCras three, while Matt Priddis was busy in midfield and Darren Glass and David Wirrpanda settled the defence after it was under siege early.

The game was also notable for the debuts of West Coast's Nick Naitanui and Richmond's Tyrone Vickery, both top-10 draft picks last year, who competed in the ruck and were unmistakable for their mop-top hairstyles.

Vickery booted a goal in the third quarter and finished with eight disposals, while Naitanui set up two goals and took a screamer in the last term, but hit the post running around from a tough angle.

The result had no impact on the top eight, as both sides now have 3-9 win-loss records.

But West Coast's defeat was their 17th in succession away from Subiaco dating back to 2007.

West Coast coach John Worsfold said his side fought out the match, but pointed to the one-sided first quarter as the pivotal period.

"We certainly didn't get our hands on the ball early, they thrashed us at stoppages, we've been pretty good in that area," he said.

"It was a game where it went their way early, we couldn't get our hands on it.

"We fought back well but that was the key thing, they won the stoppages early, and comfortably, and used the ball well going forward."

Worsfold was excited by the promise Naitanui showed and also believed Scott Selwood would benefit from trying to tag Cousins.

"It was a great opportunity for him tonight, I'd be confident that he'll have the running abilities of a Ben Cousins fairly quickly in his career and learning about that tonight, that gives him something to aim for," he said.

"Cuz works very hard and got a bit of the ball, but Scott, we're pretty happy with the way he went about it."

But Worsfold would not divulge his thoughts about Cousins' game, or if he had a message for his former player.

Rawlings said he found coaching "pretty frenetic" in the first 15 minutes, but enjoyed it throughout and was pleased with how the Tigers steadied.

"The most pleasing thing for me was we were challenged a couple of times, particularly in the second half, and we were able to react," he said.

"I thought we looked a bit shaky in the third quarter and at three-quarter time we said to the players we need to score, we weren't going to hang on to the game because they (West Coast) were coming with a rush.

"But in the last quarter we showed plenty of spirit and made some really big defensive plays which forced West Coast to turn it over or stopped their momentum, and thankfully we were able to score enough in the last quarter to keep the lead."

Rawlings commended Cousins for a big final quarter, after he highlighted some errors the midfielder made in the third quarter.

"He makes our players walk taller, he's a very good team man," he said.

"His attitude towards his teammates and this footy club, as he's warmed to it and as he's felt part of it, he's been a terrific acquisition.

"He handballed the ball a lot tonight, but generally it was to put people in better spots."