JAMIE Buhrer knew pretty early on his karate-kid phase would peter out.

Forget the fact that he had won a title as a 10-year-old at the World Martial Arts Games in Sydney in 2000, a career with the Sea Eagles was in his sights.

“I was pretty young and just wanted to play as many sports as possible,” Buhrer said of his highly successful five-year dedication to karate which netted him the under-10s Kuta world title.

“I was doing athletics, footy and karate was another one. I got the opportunity to compete at the world games and was pretty successful.

“But I think my brother was better than I was. It was good fun, it was a bit of a past-time.

“By the time I got to high school footy was my main goal.”

It meant Buhrer - who preferred the Rocky films as it fired him up for footy over The Karate Kid - packed up his brown belt, national medals and world crown to focus on packing into a scrum.

“It’s something I’ve left behind,” he said of his karate career.

“I was just a big footy fan in general, obviously a Manly fan as well. When you are that young, you don’t think you will play NRL, but you want to play NRL.

“It was always a goal that I wanted to get to, that’s why football took over those sports.”

Rugby league took over the rest in a big way, with Buhrer progressing through the Parramatta junior ranks before the Sea Eagles came knocking.

On Sunday, the nuggety back-rower will make his finals debut in a game no-one but the Sea Eagles believe they can win against the formidable Dragons at Kogarah.

“It’s something I’m really excited about,” Buhrer, who is contracted to the Sea Eagles for another 12 months, said.

“I’m really happy to be in the position I am. If you asked me a year ago would you be in semi-final football, I probably wouldn’t have believed it.

“But the opportunity has presented itself and I’m just excited to get out there and do my best.”

And that’s all the Sea Eagles coaching staff will ask when the karate kid comes off the bench on Sunday.