The 41-year-old outgoing Murray Magpies coach will instead complete an 18-month community corrections order, including 200 hours of unpaid work and mental health treatment.

Magistrate Fran Medina told Wangaratta Magistrates Court Thompson had a “disproportionate and violent reaction to the perceived threat to his children”, leading to charges including intentionally causing injury.

The victim was dating his ex-partner and went to the woman’s Wodonga home on the night of December 10, banging on the doors and windows.

Thompson’s scared daughter called her dad, who caught up with the victim on Beechworth Road and made him pull over.

A shirtless Thompson punched him multiple times in the head through the car window, kicked him in the head, damaged his car and dumped his phone into the Murray River.

The victim required surgery to a fractured eye socket and a deep cut.

Ms Medina said there were “complex” reasons for the assault, making the incident different to alcohol or drug-fuelled violence.

“I consider this offending serious,” she said. “That parents not overreact in those circumstances, and take time to be patient, is important in our community.”

Thompson apologised to the victim from the witness box when he pleaded guilty to the charges in July.

“I consider the accused as being genuine in his remorse,” Ms Medina said.

“The victim’s composure and forgiveness in this regard is commendable.”

She said her decision to not send Thompson to jail also took into account that he was the sole carer for his 14 and 11-year-old children.

The prosecutor had argued Thompson should go to jail for the assault, but barrister Peter Morrissey urged the magistrate to not take the “sledgehammer approach of prison”.

The court heard he had been exposed to violence himself as a child.

“It’s a vital matter for the children that he stays in their lives in a positive manner,” Mr Morrissey said.

“He had longstanding ways of living which needed to be addressed and they have been addressed.”