OPINION: The All Blacks' 2018 season wasn't without its faults, but the reality of 12 wins in 14 games represents yet another stellar campaign for Steve Hansen and his merry men.

However, fans have been left with more questions than answers, when it comes to the make-up of the 31-man squad that will attempt to create history in Japan by winning a third straight World Cup.

Pretenders turned into contenders and in some cases, contenders turned into pretenders.

A year is a long time in rugby. Twelve months ago, names like Karl Tuiinukuafe, Dalton Papalii, Te Toiroa Tahuirorangi or Shannon Frizell barely registered interest among Super Rugby franchises, let alone the All Blacks.

So expect a few more to pop up during the early months of next season. Nehe Milner-Skudder made a late run to earn a spot on the 2015 squad.

It could happen again.

Two things we cannot predict when it comes to the make-up of the team tasked with appeasing the nation's hunger for another William Web Ellis Trophy are form and injury.

Let's face it, Aaron Smith could break his leg in pre-season. Kieran Read could rupture an Achilles in the Super Rugby final or Sonny Bill Williams could be the catalyst for an unlikely victorious Blues campaign that squashes any notion he won't be heading to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Only time will be the judge of who is or isn't in the selectors' sights, come the end of the Super Rugby season.

You could almost guarantee that, at the conclusion of the northern tour, the selectors wrote down their 31-man squad as it stands and they would be foolish not to.

Players will come and go from that, as we count down to September 20, 2019, but the bones of the squad have been established.

Stepping into the mind of Hansen is near impossible, but predicting the names he will write down next year isn't.

On the surface, it appears this selection panel has a 'you play your way out, not in' selection philosophy.

That might not be so easy, given the struggles of some of their favoured players on the recent tour, so with that in mind, here is what the All Blacks World Cup squad could look like next year.