WNBL 2022: Flames coach Shane Heal hopes the Canberra Capitals fail in the finals after cheating scandal

The Canberra Capitals are finals-bound in the WNBL, but not everyone is happy, including Sydney Flames coach and Boomers legend Shane Heal. Find out why.

Sydney Flames coach Shane Heal has declared he doesn’t want the Canberra Capitals to win the WNBL championship because they were found guilty of cheating against his team.

Heal’s comments come as the Capitals have qualified for the finals after using private Flames training vision to gain an unfair advantage in an opening-round win.

An independent panel didn’t dock Canberra competition points for sharing the confidential training video for scouting purposes.

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Referee Simon Cosier and Capitals coach Paul Goriss were both suspended for engaging in prohibited conduct after a Basketball Australia investigation found that the pair misused inside information and engaged in conduct that would impair public confidence in the integrity of basketball.

Despite the guilty finding, an independent panel found that no actual advantage was obtained by Goriss or his team when the Capitals beat the Flames by three points in the opening round of the WNBL season.

Canberra coach Paul Goriss has steered the Capitals to the WNBL finals. Picture: Albert Perez/Getty Images

Heal strongly disagreed with the panel’s findings at the time, revealing Canberra received private video of actual warm-up games.

He believed this clearly gave Canberra an unfair advantage to beat the Flames in the opening round and wanted to see the Capitals docked points for “cheating”.

Canberra pushed the scandal aside to finish third and will play Perth in the second semi-final series, starting on Thursday.

Heal can’t bring himself to cheer for Canberra in the finals given the cheating scandal that cost his team.

“Canberra is in there and I hope they don’t win because they cheated against us at the start of the year,” Heal said on the Basketball Show.

“I hope they lose, but I don’t think they think they cheated. Even when their coach got suspended, he was on full pay.

“I also don’t think he (Goriss) apologised, so they don’t see that they did much wrong.”

Sydney coach Shane Heal won’t be cheering for the Canberra Capitals in the WNBL finals after the club were involved in a cheating scandal with the Flames. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Goriss has secured a job in the WNBA from next season, despite being found guilty of cheating by Basketball Australia, a FIBA body, for obtaining private Flames’ training footage.

Heal didn’t expect the Capitals coach to land a role in America given the cheating revelations.

“I was surprised he signed,” but good on him,” he said. “It (the scandal) certainly hasn’t impacted him because he has gone and picked up a deal in the WNBA.

“I’ll be interested to see how Canberra perform in the finals because they haven’t played as well in the last month.

“They certainly won’t be the team that I’ll be barracking for in the finals.”

The WNBL finals start on Thursday when the Melbourne Boomers host the Adelaide Lightning and the Perth Lynx take on the Canberra Capitals.

Both semi-final series are best of three.