NRL Players' Poll: All the answers on the game's big questions

NRL.com polled more than 150 players from all 16 clubs to get their responses about a range of topics from the best players in each position, the leading coach and many of the biggest talking points in the game.

In part one of the two-part series, NRL.com unveils the players' choice for all positions, best coach, captain, debutant, Dally M Medal favourite, as well as which team - apart from their own - is the one to beat in 2019.

Cameron Smith has held onto his mantle as the players' choice for the best player while his Melbourne mentor Craig Bellamy has pipped Wayne Bennett to be the highest-rated coach.

In a worrying sign for the Maroons heading into the Holden State of Origin series, the only two Queenslanders voted into the 17-man best team in the NRL have retired from the representative arena, Smith and Roosters half Cooper Cronk.

The whistle-blowers have emerged with a much-improved report card, players voting their performance across the first 10 rounds of 2019 as the best they've seen in recent seasons.

Still on the field and budding Knights superstar Kalyn Ponga leads an impressive array of young talent in the NRL.

Rival players have endorsed both Ponga's spellbinding step and his potential as a franchise player for a new club, while Victor Radley has already become one of the hardest hitters in the game.

But when it comes to the dark art of sledging, it's still an old hand that reigns supreme.

Off the field almost three-quarters of players polled support the introduction of a transfer window with more focus than ever before on player contracts.

How best to finish off a drawn game and when and where rugby league should expand are also put to players, as well as the club they'd most like to join, and love to beat.

Check out the players' answers to all the game's big questions below.

• Part 1 - Best players, coach, rookie, team and Dally M favourite
• Part 2 - Hardest hitter, best sledger and transfer window