Kangaroos were outplayed by a determined Southern Suburbs outfit at Alley Park on Sunday, suffering a shock 32-10 defeat.
Suburbs scored first through Shane Thomas and a successful conversion saw the home side take an early 6-0 lead.
Soon after, Kangaroos returned serve with a try to Harry Ambrum and the extras slotted by Ty Millard had the scores locked at 6-6.
The home side then took a six-point lead when Richard Joinbee scored his first four-pointer of the match and the extras were added by Cephas Chinfat.
It was a see-sawing affair when Kangaroos struck back with a try to William Gibbas before a converted try put Suburbs ahead by eight at the break.
In the second half, Kangaroos were kept scoreless while Suburbs fired up and kept piling on the points.
Joinbee crossed the line again to finish with a hat-trick for the match, followed by a four-pointer to Zack Sosiak to lead 26-10.
A late try to Chinfat sealed the convincing victory for Suburbs - their third for the season.
Kangaroos coach Michael White said they were very disappointing with lots of errors in the first half.
"Our attack was not fluent and we weren't using the ball in a smart manner," he said.
"Full credit to Suburbs as they stuck to their game plan a lot better than we did and towards the end, we were falling off one-on-one tackles too easily."
"Our mistake rate was costly and at this point in the season, we really need to work together as a team and really need to improve our attitude, otherwise we could quickly find ourselves at the bottom end of the ladder."
The Kangaroos coach believes his team has had a great start to the season, but in the last few weeks, some complacency has crept in.
"This year's competition is really tight with not much separating teams so there are no easy games," White said.
"There will be close results with only one or two points in it, so the have to be competitive for the full 80 minutes."
After a break, White has been back coaching A Grade for the past two years after previously coaching for five seasons.
He said this year there have been some new faces coming into the squad which has only strengthened them with really good depth in Reserve and A Grade.
"Kangaroos has always had good player development with many of the younger ones coming through and have gone on to play higher level of footy," he added.
"This is what the club is all about."
After wins to Innisfail, Yarrabah and Mossman-Port Douglas over the weekend, the loss sees Kangaroos slip from fourth to sixth on the ladder whilst Suburbs have now moved up to seventh.
Round 9 Cairns & District Rugby League Results
A Grade
Mossman-Port Douglas 26 defeated Atherton 24
Innisfail 19 defeated Cairns Brothers 18
Southern Suburbs 32 defeated Kangaroos 10
Yarrabah 36 defeated Ivanhoes 22
Edmonton 30 defeated Tully 18
Bye: Mareeba
Ladder: Cairns Brothers 12, Yarrabah 12, Innisfail 11, Mossman-Port Douglas 10, Atherton 10, Kangaroos 9, Southern Suburbs 8, Ivanhoes 7, Edmonton 6, Mareeba 4, Tully 1.
Reserve Grade
Atherton 26 defeated Mossman-Port Douglas 16
Innisfail 20 defeated Cairns Brothers 18
Yarrabah 60 defeated Ivanhoes 18
Southern Suburbs 34 defeated Kangaroos 22
Edmonton 36 defeated Tully 18
Under 18
Cairns Brothers 42 defeated Innisfail 26
Southern Kangaroos 40 defeated Southern Suburbs 18
Ivanhoes 34 defeated Yarrabah 32
Women's Touch
Atherton 4 defeated Mossman-Port Douglas 0
Edmonton 3 defeated Tully 1
Southern Suburbs 2 defeated Kangaroos 0
Innisfail 2 defeated Cairns Brothers 0
Ivanhoes 2 defeated Yarrabah 0
Round 10 A Grade Fixtures
Saturday, June 15
Mareeba v Kangaroos at Davies Park, Mareeba
Tully v Southern Suburbs at Tully Showgrounds
Innisfail v Edmonton at Callendar Park, Innisfail
Cairns Brothers v Mossman-Port Douglas at Stan Williams Park, Cairns
Sunday, June 16
Ivanhoes v Atherton at Smithfield Sports Complex
Bye: Yarrabah
Main image: Kangaroos' Sonny Bingarape is halted by Suburbs' Ryley Archibald and Daniel Tatipata (photo by Maria Girgenti).
