Former rugby league player Martin Kennedy has been jailed for four years for wildlife smuggling after an appeal court ruled a good-behaviour bond wasn't a tough enough penalty.

The former Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos prop - whose NRL career ended with a doping ban in 2016 - was immediately taken into custody on Friday after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal decision.

Martin Kennedy in action for the Roosters against the Dragons in 2013. Credit:Anthony Johnson

The 30-year-old pleaded guilty in 2018 to six offences including attempting to export shingleback lizards to Sweden, importing alligator snapping turtles and neotropical stingrays from Thailand, and illegally possessing two pythons at his Sydney home.

A District Court judge ruled he had excellent prospects of rehabilitation and sentenced him to the longest good-behaviour bond available to judges.