Far North rugby league fans are in for a treat in December with the majority of the Auckland Warriors NRL squad coming for pre-season training.
Speaking exclusively to the Northland Age, Warriors' general manager Jim Doyle said almost the entire NRL first team squad - minus those competing the in the Four Nations competition in England - would head to the Far North between December 6-8.
Mr Doyle said the Warriors' organisation was aware that the Far North, and particularly Kaitaia, has had a number of problems in the past few years.
"We know it's a community that doesn't get a great deal of support from professional sports teams. We know places like Kaitaia have had a pretty rough year or so we thought we'd head up to give something back to the community up there," he said.
Mr Doyle said like many other teams the Warriors' scouts regularly checked out league and rugby talent in the Far North, with the district providing a number of great NRL players over the years, including Craig Smith, Elijah Taylor, Adam Blair and James Fisher-Harris.