Canberra Capitals: Five things you need to know

• Canberra Capitals hold a league-record nine WNBL championships, the most of any club
• Jade Melbourne left for Bendigo and Zitina Aokuso for Adelaide after WNBL26
• Club MVP Nyadiew Puoch re-signed for two seasons as Canberra's first WNBL27 signing

The Canberra Capitals have won nine WNBL championships. No other club has won more than six.

They have also missed the finals in each of the last two seasons, and the player the whole roster was built around has left.

That is the tension the Capitals carry into WNBL27. The most decorated club in the league is rebuilding again, this time without Jade Melbourne, and it is doing it around a 22-year-old who just won the club MVP and the club Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.

Why it matters

Canberra finished WNBL26 fifth at 9-14. It was the second consecutive season they finished fifth and missed the finals, after going 8-13 in 2024-25.

The season ended in front of them at AIS Arena on February 3, 2026, when the Southside Melbourne Flyers beat them 82-75 to take the fourth and final finals place. Isabelle Bourne scored 22 points on 9-from-10 shooting. Cayla George had 10 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks, and held Zitina Aokuso to eight points on 2-from-13.

Paul Goriss was blunt about where he thought the game turned.

"When someone like Z, who I think is the best back-to-the-basket big in the league, gets five free throws, I do not know what more she can do," Goriss told basketball.com.au after the game.

"When people are shoving her in the back, holding and grabbing her from behind, and she only gets five free throws, it is ridiculous to me.

"I have asked for clarification and I literally get the same story each week."

Canberra beat the Geelong Venom 76-67 four days later to close the season. Then the off-season took two of their three best players.

What Canberra lost

Jade Melbourne, 23, signed with the Bendigo Spirit on June 30, 2026, joining her Australian Opals teammate Isobel Borlase. She had been the face of the club and led Canberra with 23 points in that elimination loss.

"Coming back to Victoria means so much to me," Melbourne said in a Bendigo Spirit club statement published by basketball.com.au.

"I grew up there, and it's where my basketball journey started, so to now represent the Spirit and play in front of that community is really special."

Bendigo general manager Dan Jackson was more direct about what she was leaving.

"Coming back to the WNBL, she's had so much pressure on her in Canberra to be the only star, creating all the shots, creating all the points. That's just not the role we need from her," Jackson told basketball.com.au in an exclusive interview.

Zitina Aokuso, a WNBL26 MVP finalist, joined the Adelaide Lightning. Teige Morrell returned to the Perth Lynx.

What Canberra kept

The club's answer began before any of that, on March 19, 2026, when Nyadiew Puoch re-signed for two more seasons as the first signing of WNBL27.

Puoch, 22, averaged 11 points and four rebounds across all 23 games in WNBL26 and won both the club MVP and the club Defensive Player of the Year. She was the 12th pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Atlanta Dream, won a WNBL championship with the Southside Flyers in 2024, and was selected by the Portland Fire in the 2026 WNBA expansion draft.

She has been explicit that the coach is why she is there.

"Another reason why I came to Canberra was to be coached by Paul Goriss, he's honestly an unreal coach and he's definitely helped me a lot," Puoch told basketball.com.au.

"Towards the end of last season I was like, 'well, my coach really does believe me, I should start believing in myself'.

"Honestly, he's helped me develop from zero to 100. He's always investing in helping me and you want that from your coach.

"When that happens, it makes you want to work hard for them, for your teammates, and the club."

Goriss is not going anywhere either. On February 10, 2026, the club extended him through to the 2027-28 season.

"This is the club and the city where I want to be coaching, this is home for me," Goriss said in a club statement.

"The goal is to be a Top 4 team every year and competing for a championship. That's what I want, that's what the players want, that's what our fans and sponsors want."

Goriss has 94 wins from more than 160 games across an eight-year WNBL head-coaching career, and he coached both of Canberra's most recent championships in 2019 and 2020.

The rebuild

The Capitals moved first and hardest on the perimeter, which is what Goriss said they needed.

Amy Atwell arrived from the Perth Lynx on May 14, 2026, the only club she had played for.

"I have loved my time at Perth and have been lucky enough to experience a decent amount of success there," Atwell said in a club statement.

"However, I just felt like I needed a change for my basketball career.

"I have always loved working with Goz at Opals commitments, and what I'm looking forward to most is building that connection on a more consistent basis."

Goriss named the brief.

"One of our priorities we needed to address this off-season was for more perimeter shooting and scoring," he said in the same club statement.

"Amy is an elite world-class scorer and will provide much-needed shooting output and the ability to create space on offence."

Atwell finished as the University of Hawaii's all-time leader in made three-pointers with 205, was pick 27 in the 2022 WNBA Draft, and was a late call-up to the Opals side that won bronze in Paris.

Around her, the Capitals added Isabel Palmer on a two-year deal from the University of Utah, New Zealand internationals Sharne Robati and Charlotte Whittaker, and Manuela Puoch from the Southside Flyers. Isabella Brancatisano re-signed at the end of March.

Import Nicole Munger re-signed on July 10, 2026 for a fifth season, the longest tenure on the roster.

Manuela Puoch, 19, is Nyadiew's younger sister. She was taken in the 2026 WNBA Draft by the New York Liberty and won silver at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup.

"I'm super excited to continue growing my game this season with the Canberra staff, meet my teammates and call myself a Cap alongside my big sis," she said in a club statement.

The roster is younger, longer and more mobile than the one that went 9-14. It is also still short: the club lists a starting point guard, a starting centre and wing depth among its needs.

The history nobody else has

The club was founded in 1984 as the Canberra Capitals, first competed in the WNBL in 1986, and was renamed the University of Canberra Capitals in 2014 when the University of Canberra Union took control from Basketball ACT.

Lauren Jackson changed everything. She arrived for 1999-2000 as the reigning league MVP, won the award again in her first season at the club while leading the WNBL in scoring at 23.4 points a game, and Canberra won the championship with a 67-50 Grand Final win against Adelaide.

Under Carrie Graf, who coached 15 seasons between 1999 and 2016, the Capitals won seven titles in eleven seasons: 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010. Tom Maher coached the 2002-03 championship. Jackson won four Grand Final series MVP awards across that run, Kristen Veal the first in 2000, Tracey Beatty the 2007 award and Natalie Hurst the 2009.

Then it stopped. Canberra lost the 2011 Grand Final and did not win another title for eight years.

The eighth came in 2018-19 after a near-total roster overhaul. Kelsey Griffin won the league MVP and her third Grand Final series MVP. The ninth came the following season, when Canadian import Kia Nurse became the first overseas player to win the Suzy Batkovic Medal as league MVP, Goriss was named coach of the year, and Olivia Epoupa took Grand Final MVP with 16 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists.

Nine titles from 11 Grand Finals. Both are WNBL records.

Carrie Graf is still at the club, as University of Canberra Director of Sport.

WNBL26 season summary

• Finished fifth at 9-14, missed the finals
• Second consecutive season finishing fifth
• Nyadiew Puoch won club MVP and club Defensive Player of the Year
• Zitina Aokuso named a WNBL26 MVP finalist
• Eliminated by the Southside Melbourne Flyers 82-75 at AIS Arena on February 3, 2026

Five fast facts

1. The Capitals' nine WNBL championships are a league record, and no other club has won more than six.

2. Canberra have played 11 WNBL Grand Finals and won nine, both league records.

3. Kia Nurse was the first overseas player to win the WNBL MVP, in 2019-20.

4. Lauren Jackson led the WNBL in scoring at 23.4 points a game in her first season at the club, and in rebounds and blocks the following season.

5. Nyadiew and Manuela Puoch are sisters, and both were drafted into the WNBA.

Club timeline

• 1984: Founded as the Canberra Capitals
• 1986: Joins the WNBL
• 1999: Lauren Jackson arrives as the reigning league MVP
• 1999-2000: First WNBL championship
• 2001-02, 2002-03: Back-to-back titles, second and third
• 2005-06, 2006-07: Back-to-back again, fourth and fifth
• 2008-09, 2009-10: A third pair of back-to-back titles, sixth and seventh
• 2010-11: Lose the Grand Final
• 2014: Renamed the University of Canberra Capitals
• 2018-19: Roster overhauled, Kelsey Griffin wins the league MVP, eighth championship
• 2019-20: Ninth championship, Kia Nurse wins the league MVP, Paul Goriss coach of the year
• 2024-25: Fifth at 8-13, miss the finals
• 2025-26: Fifth at 9-14, miss the finals again
• 2026: Goriss extended to 2027-28, Nyadiew Puoch re-signs, Jade Melbourne and Zitina Aokuso depart, Amy Atwell arrives

What's next

Canberra open WNBL27 at home at AIS Arena on Saturday, October 17, 2026 at 3:00pm (AEDT), against the Bendigo Spirit.

Jade Melbourne's first game for her new club is against her old one.