The 2019 Warrnambool and District league AFL Victoria Country medal winner graduated after completing his PhD thesis at Victoria University.

It was an unusual ceremony but perhaps most fitting given the geography of his topic.

His thesis is titled: A Cultural History of Australian Rules Football in Rural South West Victoria during the Interwar Years.

The graduation ceremony was held online because of the coronavirus pandemic so he celebrated with his folks Pepita and John at their Kolora farm.

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The 28-year-old stated in his thesis he wanted to go beyond numbers and names of the past.

"Australian Rules football has been played for well over 100 years in rural Victoria, however historians are yet to examine in detail what the game has meant to local towns and districts," he wrote in chapter one.

The interwar years were characterised by milestones for south-west football.

The Hampden Football League had its first season in 1930.

Listen to Nick Marshall speak about his thesis on The Main Break podcast:

Marshall explained Terang, Mortlake, Cobden and Camperdown formed the new league having come from the Western District Football League.

He said there were many surrounding competitions, including the Mount Noorat Football League, called 'junior leagues' at the time.

More towns had their own teams compared to today.

Marshall trolled through about 4000 issues of the Camperdown Chronicle, Terang Express, Mortlake Dispatch and Cobden Times along with metropolitan newspapers.

"To collect the newspaper articles I spent about six months at the state library," he said. "The state library has all newspapers on microfilm or digitised."

Marshall lived in Footscray while studying and would drive back to the south-west for Kolora-Noorat training on Thursday nights.

He could be found in a quiet space of the Terang library each Friday of the football season.

Footballers as masculine role models for the south-west during the interwar years is one theme Marshall explored.

He said Australia had various masculine idols during the late 19^th century and early 20^th century.

He wrote bushmen and then World War One soldiers "were lionised for their embodiment of perceived iconic Australian traits such as independence, resourcefulness, resilience, and loyalty: such attributes which in themselves tended to harbour obvious masculinised connotations."

Marshall explained how this changed.

"Following the war, the soldiers had come home as conquering heroes I suppose and they were presented as such," he said.

"But then after a bit of time their presence as exemplary figures faded a bit."

Marshall said during the 1930s admired figures like cricket great Don Bradman and Bondi lifesavers emerged.

"At a local level, certainly in the south-west, and my thesis was footballers became that representative figure to the region," he said.

"Players weren't necessarily revered for what they did on the field but how they did it, the sort of spirit they played in."

He said south-west players were admired for their sportsmanship rather than "the bash and crash sort of stuff that was prevalent in the city at the time in the professional league (VFL)".

"The thing with the country leagues was they were amateur competitions so players weren't getting paid to play," Marshall said.

"They were playing purely for the love of the game, playing just for fun rather than for sheep stations."

Professionalism versus amateurism is another topic Marshall delves into.

"At the time, the only drawcard country clubs had was that they could pay their coaches but no other players," he said.

He explained VFL players were paid a small amount so high-quality footballers were attracted to the player-coach position in country teams.

Marshall can see similarities between the sport during the interwar years and the modern game.

"You see in today's football the game is getting more and more professional at a local level because we're mimicking what's happening at AFL level," he said.

"There was a similar of relationship back then...ideas about how the game should be played, rule modifications that occurred in VFL were being translated to country leagues.

"There were a lot of rebuffs against some of the rule changes because they didn't really appeal to the country form of the game."

Ironically, just as there is in the 2020 AFL competition, there was plenty of debate about the VFL's "evolving re-interpretations of the 'holding (the ball) rule' " in the early 1930s.

This is something Marshall writes about in his thesis.

The Kolora-Noorat player said he had gained a greater appreciation of the value of community organisations to society.

He said from the interwar years to present day community groups, like clubs, had been crucial to spreading cultural values.

"So back then ideals of masculinity were highly prevalent within the culture of the club and they were a reflection of what was going on at a community level as well," he said.

"I think that still exists today.

"Football clubs, sports clubs or community groups in general provide a space where cultural patterns can be highlighted and either celebrated or advocated and disseminated throughout the public.

"Community groups are really vital in communicating cultural change within communities at rural, regional, state and national levels."

Marshall's not sure what he'll pursue next but feels he's gained a valuable skill set from completing his thesis.

"Potentially, I can apply a few of the skills I've learnt to a whole spectrum of different sorts of fields and industries," he said.

One thing the back-pocket is of sure of is he wants to play for the Power again in 2021.

You can read Marshall's thesis free by following this link: http://vuir.vu.edu.au/40596/

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