FORMER AFL player Nick Stevens has been granted bail just hours after being jailed for domestic abuse.

Lawyers for the former Carlton and Port Adelaide star are appealing his eight-month jail sentence and conviction for bashing and threatening his ex-girlfriend.

Stevens, 35, was found guilty of smashing his ex-girlfriend's face into a kitchen bench and threatening to kill her and her father.

He will return to court in April.

The charges effectively ended any hopes Stevens had of an AFL coaching career, the court heard earlier this month.

Magistrate Nunzio La Rosa said Stevens had shown no remorse for the sustained violence against the victim, and general deterrence was important in matters of domestic violence.

Stevens also pleaded guilty to breaching an intervention order by sending about 2500 text messages to the victim in 2013.

Magistrate La Rosa said many of these messages were the mundane sort that usually occurred between a couple in a relationship, but others gave insight in Stevens' psychological state.

"It became evidence that you would not hesitate to manipulate the victim both psychologically and emotionally," Magistrate La Rosa said.

After the police laid charges against Stevens, he called the victim twice and threatened her.

Magistrate La Rosa also ordered Stevens to serve a community corrections order of 12 months and fined him $400.

Stevens also will have to perform 90 hours of community service.

Mr La Rosa accepted Stevens had already suffered greatly, but there no legal basis to differentiate between him and others who came before the court simply because he had more to lose.

He said Stevens had strongly contested the charges, so the victim was forced to spend two and a half days in the witness box during the committal hearing.

The woman has a facial scar due to Stevens smashing her face into the kitchen bench and the splashback at the house the pair shared.

Stevens was also found guilty of pushing her face into the exterior of her parents' home and threatening to kill her and her father.

Stevens was sacked as coach of Glenelg in the SANFL on the day he was found guilty in January.