The shock defeat saw the Tricolours drop to third on the ladder behind Belconnen, while Queanbeyan took top spot after the 17.10 (112) to 8.12 (60) victory at Alan Ray Oval.

Ainslie coach Chris Rourke conceded his side were dominated around the contested ball and at stoppages.

"We were beaten by a really good side today," Rourke said.

"We really looked like a lazy side suffering a premiership hangover, you can't play good footy if they were harder at it and cleaner than us, so full credit to Queanbeyan."

Queanbeyan got on top of the ladder by scoring eight goals in a rampant second quarter. Rourke was left disappointed by his side who crumbled under pressure and struggled to lift their game.

"As a club we pride ourselves on competing and today we didn't compete," Rourke said "It's a really even [competition] so if you don't come ready to play [then] the opposition will make you pay."

Ainslie will take some positives out of the match, such as the response from some of their younger players, when facing off against the Tuggeranong Hawks next week.

"We will have a good look at our stoppage work and contested ball," Rourke said. "Particularly our ball handling under pressure that wasn't good. They applied really good pressure, we fumbled and they were clean. But young Matt Ackland was good off of our halfback flank and I thought we reacted quite well after half time."

Meanwhile, the Eastlake Demons thrashed Tuggeranong 15.18 (108) to 5.5 (35) at Greenway Oval and the Belconnen Magpies dominated over the Gungahlin Jets 17.19 (121) to 5.5 (35) at Kippax.