The Sharks have beaten off the Eels, the Melbourne Storm, the West Tigers, the Bulldogs and the Gold Coast in signing 18-year-old Kelly to a two-year contract.

The Tigers were rumoured to have offered Kelly $150,000 a season and the Storm had the lure of Kelly's cousin Greg Inglis.

Kelly has been virtually a try-a-game player with the Eels in the Toyota Cup and made a history-making appearance with Wenworthville against Newtown in the NSW Cup a few weeks ago.

He took the ball from the Magpies' kick-off and scored a try after nine seconds - claimed to be a rugby league record.

Kelly scored four more tries that afternoon but that only underlined his ability; it didn't announce him as a new shooting star.

He has been a football star virtually from the cradle.

Kelly was spotted by Parramatta in Kempsey, brought to Sydney and placed at Patrician Brothers Blacktown.

He played in the Arrive Alive Cup last season.

Kelly has played in the Australian Schoolboys team, where a teammate was centre Mark Wright, now at the Sharks.

He was also a member of the NSW Under-18 team in the curtain-raiser to last week's State-of-Origin game.

Kelly's departure confirms the Toyota Cup is a professional player market and the old stepping stones have been replaced.

Time was when a club identified a promising player and nurtured him, and he would progress through to first grade at the club if good enough.

No longer.

The Toyota Cup is just a buyers' and sellers' market.