MARVEL: Marmin Barba is tipped by Jets co-coach Shane Walker to score 50 tries in 2017.

MARVEL: Marmin Barba is tipped by Jets co-coach Shane Walker to score 50 tries in 2017. Rob Williams

THE GREAT entertainer.

Instinctive genius.

Fan favourite.

Faster than a speeding bullet.

The superlatives for marvellous Marmin Barba flow off the keyboard and they are deserved.

The 25-year-old flying winger is tipped by Ipswich Jets co-coach Shane Walker to return from a broken ankle that sidelined him for most of last year's Intrust Super Cup with a bang....and then some.

"He's come back before from a cruciate operation and scored plenty of tries so he's no stranger to fighting his way to his best," Walker said.

"He is young and he's had a good lay-off and rest. We'll be playing him on that left wing again with Nemani Valekapa who he has a great combination with.

"The only thing different this year is that he will score 50 tries. That's the aim, and there's no reason why he can't. He missed half a dozen games when he scored 31."

Barba knows his way to the tryline like few others in the game today. His genetics are impeccable.

"Try scorers are like a lot of the freakish talents you see in a lot of different sports," Walker said.

"They talk about guys who can slam-dunk in basketball and the guys who can hit home runs in baseball. Try scorers are born. You don't make them.

"And Marmin, like all try scorers, has an uncanny ability and awareness to understand where he is in space or where he needs to be to get in the right space."

Barba is certainly also in the right mental space at the Jets, where he feels right at home.

"Marmin is a free spirited fella'," Walker said.,

"We don't look to put restrictions on that. We embrace it.

"On game day when we do our final training run, for some reason he likes to train with no shoes on and no shirt.

"But we don't put a pair of boots and a shirt on him. We let him feel comfortable with how he wants to feel and work with it."

NRL clubs have a blind spot when it comes to Barba, reflective of many coaches' mundane mindsets and inability to think outside the square when it comes to players lacking in physical size.

That has gifted one of the game's most innate talents to the Jets, although Walker insists that he and brother Ben both believe Barba would be a star in the NRL and entertain fans young and old alike.

"If we were given an opportunity (in the NRL) we'd certainly take Marmin with us," Walker said.

"Some of the greats and real entertainers of our game like Ewan McGrady, Ben Barba, Johnathan Thurston, Matty Bowen and Preston Campbell were all little guys.

"I know from having my own boys, and being around Ben's young fellas as well, when you listen to the under 7s, 8s and up they all love these little players.

"I guess they have a connection with them because they can see they are little too and think 'I'm little, and yet they can play against big fellas and succeed and score tries'.

"Ultimately the fans are drawn towards these entertainers.

"Marmin is a fan favourite, no matter where we go. When we went to PNG they treated him like royalty."

If Barba can bring up the half century he may get a call-up to play in the middle order for the Australian cricket team.

"Yes, if he can bring up the 50 he'd certainly have a place in their team," Walker grinned.