The New Zealand forward has linked with the club and is impressing at training.

Family connections brought him to Wagga, and new Brothers captain-coach Cameron Breust is pleased he decided to head down to training

"He hasn't come over just to play footy but came over and wanted to play footy for us," Breust said.

"He's a big boy and he looks like he's quite handy.

"We might have accidentally fallen into some luck."

Faukafa has spent the past six seasons with Waitemata Seagulls in the Sharman Cup competition in Auckland.

However he is looking forward to testing himself in a new environment.

"I wanted to have a jam and see what it is like," Faukafa said.

The new environment, or more so Wagga's climate has been a challenge for the 26-year-old after arriving two weeks ago.

"It is a real good club, it's just this heat that I'm not used to yet," Faukafa said.

"It is a big struggle."

Faukafa is looking to slot into Brothers forward pack with options in the front row and second row.

Brothers have elected against heading to the West Wyalong Knockout this season.

They were beaten in an extra-time thriller in last year's final, but the new coach elected to focusing on training rather than playing so far out from the start of the season.

"There's no West Wyalong for us," Breust said.

"It's not a huge reason but we just wanted to concentrate on our training and team-play for the next month instead of breaking it up with play.

"We've got all our trials set out more closer to the season so we've decided against it to concentrate on our fitness."

Brothers have been fairly quiet on the recruitment front.

Former Cootamundra co-coach Chris Maher leads their new faces while Joe Leggatt is back after joining Temora midway through last season and James Morgan has made the switch from Kangaroos.

They also aren't expecting too many losses from last season.

However Ben Schreiber has moved on to coach Wagga City in Southern Inland while there is uncertainty over the future of Harold Kirby and former coach Peter Little.

Brothers host Coogee in their annual trial on March 21 before the Group Nine pre-season nines at Junee the following week.

They then head to tackle Group 11 club Dubbo Macquarie on April 4.

Brothers kick start their Group Nine season on April 19 when they head to Greenfield Park to tackle Albury, the team who knocked them out of finals last season.

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