Jimenez said the Tigers had relaxed after they were crowned league champions and hadn't managed to play at the same level throughout their premier league finals campaign or in the NPL quarter-final against Bonnyrigg.

Cooma conceded 15 goals through those three games and scored just the one.

The Tigers got off to a perfect start in the NPL quarter-final and Jordan Lando found himself on the end of a great through-ball that put him one-on-one with White Eagles keeper James Chronopolous.

Lando's toe-poke was perfectly placed past Chronopolous and it trickled into the back of the net.

Cooma almost doubled its lead immediately.

Stephen Domenici weaved his way across the top of the Bonnyrigg penalty box and and found Jeremias Ibarra charging on goal, but his powerful shot was parried away by Chronopolous.

From there the visitors took over and the Cooma defence struggled in the air.

Dylan Fox equalised with a header from a corner and then Nikola Zonjic put Bonnyrigg in front in the same manner.

White Eagles striker Arron Peterson managed a brace, while Tynan Diaz scored a brilliant strike from 30 metres after Cooma failed to clear the ball.

Jimenez said it was good for the Canberra clubs to be involved the NPL finals, but all clubs would need to lift.

It was the second big defeat for a Canberra club within a week, after Tuggeranong United went down 6-0 to A-League side Melbourne Victory at Viking Park on Tuesday night.

"It's good for us [to play in this competition], it's  a lesson to learn for the coaches, the team, and hopefully we can bring more games and teams like this [to Canberra]," Jimenez said.

"Now you know if you win [the league championship] you've got to play against good teams, so we need to improve a bit more and hopefully all the teams in Canberra start to pick up, bring some more players and get a strong league like in Sydney."

While Cooma won its first league championship in 63 years, it struggled through the finals.

It lost 6-0 to Belconnen United in the semi-final and then Canberra FC beat the Tigers 3-0 in the preliminary to bow out in straight sets.

Jimenez struggled to find a good player in the quarter-final loss, but he couldn't fault the players' efforts.

"The end of the season was hard for us. After we won the season we relaxed a bit and it was hard to come back again," he said.

"But we were happy where we finished and we gave everything we've got.

"It wasn't good enough for us, but we can't complain about it."

AT A GLANCE

Bonnyrigg (Dylan Fox 22, Nikola Zonjic 54, Arron Peterson 57, 71, Tynan Diaz 63, Alexander Doyle 79) 6 bt Cooma (Jordan Lando 10).

At AIS Track, crowd 288.