Since making his first grade debut in 2008 with the Canterbury Bulldogs Jamal Idris has been haunted by one word.
Potential.
Idris has played for three different clubs over the course of his career and showed huge potential at all of them. This potential saw Idris play representative football in his first season, a trend that continued as Idris eventually played for both New South Wales and Australia.
When Idris moved to the Gold Coast Titans in 2012 his career started going in the wrong direction. Injuries took their toll but many would suggest he didn’t apply himself as well as he should have. He wasn’t the only one of course, and with all of the issues the Titans were going through at the time its hard to blame any player for not being at their best. It is however fair to say that the time Idris spent at the Titans were not all that good for the development of his career.
In 2014 Idris is having possibly his best season so far. The defensive issues he had earlier in his career are showing up far less than they use to and his work rate in attack has seen him make a lot of meters for the Panthers this year.
You get the feeling he could be so much better though…
Right now Idris can put fear into an opposition through his sheer size. At 23 years of age, if he gave himself 6 months where he looked after his diet, dropped a bit of extra weight he carries, hit the weights room and just committed a small part of his entire life to seeing what he could really do with his career, I think he would end up being a test player once again.
Imagine having to face Jamal Idris if he was at the same fitness level as say Greg Inglis. It would be a nightmare. It would be unfair on opposition players! He is the size of the biggest forwards in the game, he has decent mobility as it is, and he isn’t afraid of getting in and making hard yards up the middle of the field. If you added a layer of extra fitness on top of that, he walks into the New South Wales side and at the very least he is on the bench for Australia.
The 2017 World Cup is not all that far away. Any player that wants to be part of that team needs to start proving themselves right now. Idris will be 27 when it rolls around, that should be the prime of his career. What he does right now, the way he works on his game, the extra work that someone as physically gifted as he is doesn’t have to do but needs to do if they want to get the best out of themselves, that all needs to start right now.
I don’t want to talk about Jamal Idris’ potential. I want to talk about him being one of the best players in the world. I want to talk about this freak athlete that backs it up with a complete commitment to making the most out of his ability.
The sky is the limit for Jamal Idris. Sure he could take it easy and have a very solid career, but if he decides to take his game to the next level he would be mentioned among the best in the game.
Lets hope Jamal’s career goals are as lofty as our expectations.
