Ainslie kicked off their AFL Canberra premiership defence with a 22-point victory over the Queanbeyan Tigers in a grand final rematch at Margaret Donoghoe Oval on Sunday.

The Tricolours dropped just one game last season and finished with a percentage of 403.29, but Rourke says his side has come back to the pack.

Rarely did the margin exceed much more than two goals before Ainslie kicked the last few to wrap up the four points.

"It shows that it's certainly not going to be a walk in the park for us I wouldn't think," Rourke said.

"Obviously with Eastlake and Belconnen having good wins [on Saturday], and these blokes are still up and about, it's going to be a good season.

"We're not that far in front of everybody. We think we've got some work to do and hopefully we'll be able to improve on it, but it's not going to be a walk in the park.

New Queanbeyan coach Dave Corcoran was pleased his side managed to stay a contest that "could have gone either way 15 minutes into the last quarter".

But while the Tigers have made two straight grand finals for one flag, he is refusing to rest on his laurels and knows there is plenty of work to do.

"We're comfortable with where we sit at the moment but what we need to do now is raise our standards and make sure that we continue to improve," Corcoran said.

"So when we play Belconnen and Ainslie in the next month or so we're back up at a higher level than we were today.

"In terms of the league, there was a couple of 200-point defeats [on Saturday] so we're really pleased that we could put on a show that was the match of the round essentially."

Corcoran gave young Tigers defender Mitchell Price the tall task of marking "a legend of the comp" in Ainslie forward Nick Paine - a battle that had Rourke licking his lips.

But Paine was kept relatively quiet with Price named one of Queanbeyan's best on ground.

"Young Pricey played down on Nick Paine down back which we thought was going to be a good mismatch, but he did really well on him," Rourke said.

AT A GLANCE

AFL Canberra round one:

QUEANBEYAN TIGERS 3.0 6.4 9.5 12.6 (78)

AINSLIE TRICOLOURS 4.3 7.5 10.6 15.12 (102)

Queanbeyan Goal Kickers: B. Fruend 3, P. Slater 2, J. Simpson, B. Lagana, T. Clowry, T. Collins, J. Carroll-Tape, A. Page, Z. Derksen

???Queanbeyan Best Players: M. Price, T. Collins, J. Bowyer, P. Slater, J. Hedington, J. Kirkwood

BELCONNEN MAGPIES 10.2 18.6 27.12 37.19 (241)

TUGGERANONG HAWKS 2.0 6.1 7.1 8.6 (54)

EASTLAKE DEMONS 12.3 23.9 37.16 37.16 (238)

GUNGAHLIN JETS 0.1 0.2 2.5 2.7 (19)