An investment in an Australian NRL match between Melbourne Storm and St George Illawarra seven years ago is bearing fruit with the New Zealand Warriors confirming one of its home matches will be played in Napier next year.

Vodafone Warriors CEO Cameron George today announced Napier as one of two non-Auckland hosts of home games in the 2023 NRL season.

The opponents and dates for the matches, in Napier and Wellington, won't be known until the NRL releases the full season draw later this year.

It will be the Warriors first NRL game in Hawke's Bay, but the Napier City Council, having bought rights to what was a Melbourne "home" game, began the bid to get the Warriors to McLean Park almost before teams were back on the bus at McLean Park after a July 2015 competition match there between Melbourne Storm and St George Illawarra.

It featured Hwake's Bay player Tohu Harris playing for the Storm and now the Warriors and New Zealand Kiowis captain.

The Warriors' reserve side with some star players, including Matthew Ridge, played a pre-season match at the former Nelson Park in Hastings in the 1990s.

The same Park hosted a pre-season match involving Manly Seagulls in pre-Warriors days of Kiwis NRL team-of-choice and before a crowd of about 12,500 in February 1992, and Canterbury Bulldogs in January 1994.

- Doug Laing, HBT