Ryan Reynolds wasn't there, nor was Rob McElhenney, but players, coaches and executives from Wrexham AFC visited Hawthorn Football Club on Tuesday. 

The Welsh football team has generated support from almost every corner of the globe since the Hollywood heavyweights bought the club in 2021 and created the popular Docuseries Welcome to Wrexham on Disney+.

Last off-season, head of coaching performance and development Brett Ratten travelled to the United Kingdom and spent time at Wrexham AFC, meeting with coaches and officials, as part of his professional development. 

Since that visit, Wrexham has achieved something unprecedented in English football: back-to-back-to-back promotions, completing a remarkable rise from the fifth tier to League Two to League One to now the Championship for the 2025/26 season. 

"The story has grabbed everyone. To think they've now gone up three divisions in three years; it's never happened," Ratten told AFL.com.au on Tuesday. 

"For them, climbing from the national league, where does it end? They've done amazing things. It gives everyone hope from where teams can be and where they can grow to."

Under GM Rob McCartney, Hawthorn mandates a minimum of three days of professional development for each member of its football department staff every off-season.

Sam Mitchell has spent time with Ange Postecoglou during his stints at Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur. David Hale visited NFL franchises Las Vegas Raiders and Arizona Cardinals last year. Ratten also met with Cardiff City and Wales Rugby, where the veteran coach looked for incremental gains to embed in the program at Hawthorn. 

"You are searching for the one percenter," he said. "I remember Kevin Sheedy years ago saying every year you have to grow by 10 per cent. That's finding 10 one percenters, that's not finding 10 per cent. Its finding 10 one percenters. Can you find them? 

"I think you get validation on your own program and where you sit. Sometimes it is validating what you're doing and where you sit and trying to work out our program versus others. The challenge when you go overseas is the expenditure over us, but sometimes it's just the little things that you get out of messaging, how they approach meetings."

Wrexham AFC director Shaun Harvey visited Melbourne in March last year for the Sports NXT conference where he met Hawthorn's No. 1 ticket holder Emma Race, who invited him to the MCG to watch the Hawks against Carlton. 

Since then, the former CEO of the English Football League, Leeds United and managing director of Bradford City has kept tabs on the fortunes of Hawthorn from the other side of the world. 

"One of my prized possessions is a personalised Hawks jumper, which I keep at home. Coming back here today is brilliant. I've kept watching the results and followed from afar," Harvey said.

"It's like any sporting team you have a connection with: you want them to do well. I'm never going to profess to know the inner workings and the details, but once you have a team you have them for life, that's the Wrexham story ultimately. People have been attracted to the club. It's exactly the same for me with the Hawks."

Wrexham AFC CEO Michael Williamson said the huge number of Australian viewers was a key factor in the Welsh club's decision to run a pre-season tour in this part of the world, with friendlies to come against Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix. 

"We spent the last two summers in North America. We have a fantastic fanbase out there, so we got to connect with them on the ground and in the community. We looked where we wanted to go next. Where makes sense for us?" Williamson said.

"When we looked at the viewers from the documentary Welcome to Wrexham, it is the second most streamed content on Disney. But ultimately it made sense for us to come down and do our pre-season here and connect with Australians."

Hawthorn head to Perth on Friday to face Fremantle at Optus Stadium on Saturday night. 

Father-son prospect Cooper Hodge trained with the AFL squad for the second time this year, flying down from Brisbane to join the Hawks for a couple of sessions, alongside Changkuoth Jiath's younger brother Goy, who is part of Hawthorn's next generation academy.