Peter Cullie, 54, was sentenced in the County Court on Wednesday for intentionally causing serious injury and using a prohibited weapon in a licensed premises.

A fellow greyhound trainer underwent surgery for injuries to his diaphragm and a collapsed lung after Cullie stabbed him on the evening of September 14, 2016.

Cullie and the victim were at a function centre at Lords Raceway when they became involved in a minor verbal and physical altercation.

Shortly afterwards the victim and a friend walked past Cullie towards the exit and more words were exchanged.

The victim and Cullie then approached each other and grappled.

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Cullie pulled the knife from his pocket and stabbed the victim, then aged 39, in his left side.

The victim's friend began to drive him to hospital, but was met by an ambulance on the way.

After they left the venue, Cullie called triple-zero and said he had stabbed someone in self-defence because they had headbutted and threatened him.

Cullie was told to attend the Bendigo police station, but before he did so he broke off most of the knife's blade, taking it from 10 to 14 centimetres long to about two centimetres long.

At the police station, Cullie produced the knife with the shortened blade and said he carried it for self-defence.

He told police he did not think it had caused any real injury, but the victim was hospitalised for some time and had yet to fully recover.

"Apart from the initial and continuing experience of pain, [the victim] has suffered emotionally with anxiety, sleeplessness and hypervigilance to the point of exhaustion," Judge Howard Mason said.

"The business was affected financially. [His] partner has also been significantly physically and emotionally affected.

"She has suffered years of constant worry, feeling mentally and physically drained."

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Later that month, Cullie was again interviewed and said he had the knife because he took it off his son.

He said he did not know it was a flick knife, but later admitted to knowing it was collapsible and that he had broken the blade the night of the fight.

Judge Mason noted Cullie grew up deprived in a violent household and suffered serious mental health problems, which moderated his moral culpability.

He also took into account Cullie's guilty pleas to the two charges, his remorse, his lack of violent past offending, his stable relationship and his history of hard work, accepting his chances of rehabilitation were generally good.

But Judge Mason said Cullie's response to the altercation was excessive.

"It is a clear example of why it is so dangerous, such a dangerous act, to be carrying a knife in public," he said.

Sentencing purposes could not be met without Cullie's imprisonment, Judge Mason said.

Cullie was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 months.

He would have copped a four-year prison term with a minimum of three years if he had not pleaded guilty.

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