Kelly butchered two John Sutton bombs that led to tries, missed a third bomb completely and, just for good measure, was taken out by Issac Luke without the ball on a fourth occasion.
How the former Parramatta half will now recover from the horror outing remains to be seen.
Stuart, however, leapt to the teenager's defence and said he only wished he had 16 other players at the club who were as tough as him.
"That kid is brilliant and will be a real player," Stuart said.
"But I'm certainly not going to burn him out at this level. He's just learning. We had a chat during the week and he expects a lot of himself, and yet it was a relief when I told him he won't be the player I think he will be until 2012.
"This is a learning season for him, but you only have to look at some of things he did when he had the football. He's a real tough kid, and something we haven't got.
"The two dropped bombs, if he had been in the game as long as some of us have, you see those kicks go up tonight and they're actual good bombs - not the drop-punt type where they're easy to catch - they were spiral bombs that floated and were hard to catch."
Stuart and Sharks chief executive Richard Fisk shielded the 19-year-old from the press afterwards. Not even Sutton was prepared to talk about the field day he had kicking to Kelly. This time last year he was neck-and-neck with Daniel Mortimer for a possible NRL call-up to the Eels' halves. Kelly and Mortimer blitzed the Toyota Cup together before the latter was promoted to senior football. Kelly, on the other hand, fell out with coaching staff and was soon on the move to the Shire.
Stuart's options are limited as his side looks at long odds to scrape together in the near future. So it makes sense to persevere with Kelly, a regally bred player from the bush whose first cousin is Greg Inglis.
The signing of Tim Smith and the presence of Trent Barrett, along with Scott Porter, means Kelly will be denied his shot at playing at his preferred No. 6 or No. 7 any time soon. But Kelly is good enough to adapt anywhere, perhaps starting as early as Saturday under the high balls good mate Mortimer and the Eels will no doubt launch his way.
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I cant see Kelly being at fullback for the game against us!