Wrexham's Australia and NZ tour diary: 'They didn't know us 20 years ago, but they certainly do now.'

Wrexham are touring Australia and New Zealand for the very first time. While the Championship awaits the Welsh side in 2025-26, they will first have to play three A-League clubs across three cities on their preseason tour.

ESPN will be with them every step of the way as Phil Parkinson, Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney & Co. plot their path to the Premier League.

A very different Aussie experience for Wayne Jones and Wrexham

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Plenty has changed for Wayne Jones, one of the breakout stars of the "Welcome To Wrexham" documentary series, and his beloved Wrexham since the last time he was in Australia back in 2005.

Two decades ago, Jones was wrapping up a two-year long backpacking trip across the country, an odyssey that had stretched across all sections of the country and, in the fine tradition of Brits heading Down Under for a working holiday, seen him pick bananas in Tully and grapes in Mildura, perform factory work in Perth, and do whatever other kinds of jobs he would see advertised in the hostels in which he laid his head.

Wrexham, meanwhile, had just set the unwelcome precedent of becoming the first Football League club to suffer a 10-point deduction for going into administration, setting them on a path to be relegated to League Two and, a few years later, the National League.

As explored in the sixth episode of Welcome to Wrexham, if not for protests from fans against the then-ownership of Alex Hamilton, the club may have died. Flash forward, and the Red Dragons are now owned by Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds and are set to compete in the English second-tier for the first time since 1982 after becoming the first-ever club in the history of the English pyramid to secure three-straight promotions.

Landlord of the now-famous Turf pub, Jones has become known around the world thanks to the documentary series cataloguing this rise and, after being part of previous preseason tours of North America, has returned to Australia alongside the Red Dragons as part of their preseason tour.

"To be back here, two decades to the year, now a Championship club with very good owners who want nothing but the best for the club and a staff that work tremendously well for the club -- it's a vast contrast to where we were two decades ago," Jones told ESPN. "It's literally one end of the scale to the other. So I'm much more enjoy this time around.

"I think I've been in denial for the last couple of years, where I've been saying my life hasn't changed. But, of course, it's changed. I'm sitting in Australia, talking to you guys. I'm walking down the street and people recognize the shirt. So clearly, it's changed."

Indeed, it's remarkable what an award-winning documentary can do for a town's reputation. Because, as Jones recalls, the last time he was in Australia "very few people knew about Wrexham full stop, let alone the football team."

"I spoke to anybody here 20 years ago, I was saying 'I live in Wales, which is next to England'," he recalled. "Nothing against anybody locally or anybody I met with travels; the town didn't have much to shout about.

"Now we get stopped everywhere. Everybody recognizes the badge. The guy in the airport on the way out was like 'We get thousands of these shirts coming through every week.'

"They didn't know us 20 years ago, but they certainly do now."

Sights and sounds

Wrexham unveiled their kits for the 2025-26 campaign overnight, taking inspiration from their strip the last time they were in the English second-tier.

And Jones is a fan; "I get sort of Joey Jones vibes about it. Because that's iconic on Joey."

Quote of the day

"Don't think I've watched the latest season, but I watched the first couple. I've followed Ben Foster throughout my career, met him as a 13-year-old, so when he joined the club, I watched what he got up to and have been a casual follower ever since." -- Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Jack Duncan on playing Wrexham.

What's on tomorrow for Wrexham?

It's matchday for the first time Down Under as Wrexham face A-League Men outfit Melbourne Victory at Marvel Stadium.

Four-time champions of Australia, the Victory have qualified for back-to-back grand finals, losing to Central Coast in 2024 and Melbourne City in 2025, but with the Australian top-flight not starting for at least another three months, they have only been back in preseason for a week.

Furthermore, several key figures, including Socceroos Kasey Bos, Daniel Arzani, and Ryan Teague, have moved to European clubs during the offseason, while other key contributors such as Nishan Velupillay, Reno Piscopo, Franco Lino, and Lachlan Jackson have all been ruled out by coach Arthur Diles.