In 2007, a rampant Essendon became the first team to topple the All-Stars, who had emerged victorious in their previous three games against Collingwood (1997), Carlton (2003) and the Western Bulldogs (2005).
This year’s new-look squad trained together for the first time on Wednesday but Campbell said the foundations - including an 11pm curfew - had been put in place earlier in the week.
“The boys have stated that we’re out here to win on Saturday night. We’re not here to muck around and we’ve stuck to that throughout the week,” Campbell said in Darwin.
“We’ve been on an alcohol ban and we’ve all stuck by each other. We haven’t been out or got drunk because we made the statement straight away that we wanted to win.
“I didn’t play in the last game against Essendon, but I was up here and talking to the guys after the game. They were pretty down because they wanted to keep the undefeated streak going.
“When we take on the Crows this week, we’ll be pretty passionate and pretty full on so hopefully we can get the crowd behind us.”
The North Melbourne livewire, who will wear his traditional number 33, is likely to slot in alongside fellow Northern Territory natives Cyril Rioli and Daniel Motlop in the All-Stars attack on Saturday night.
Coach Chris Johnson said an abundance of small, crumbing types in the team would lead to several playing out of position.
“I’ve had a chat with a couple of the boys about just how many players we’ve got in that small forward position and they were pretty keen to get in the midfield and in the back line too,” Johnson said.
“We’ll weigh it up and try to balance it out as much as we can. It’s going to be tough and we may end up with a full-forward line under five-foot at some stage, so we’ll have to try to get it to ground and move the ball as fast as we can.”
One player that clearly surpasses the five-foot mark is North Melbourne recruit Warren Benjamin.
Benjamin, 18, was selected at pick No.71 in last year’s NAB AFL Draft and will play for the All-Stars despite never having pulled on the Kangaroos’ jumper.
“Warren’s a young kid from Western Australia and at 187cm and 85kg he’s a pretty good size. He probably wasn’t a chance to play originally, but when he got up here there weren’t many tall guys available,” Campbell said.
Campbell, 22, has played 32 games in the blue and white since being elevated from the club’s rookie list, but Saturday night will be his first All-Stars cap.
“I’m just looking forward to being out there on the field with all the boys you call your brothers and your mates,” he said.
“It’s a lot different when you play back home for your club. You play with, maybe, one or two Indigenous boys and, when you play against the others, it’s not as good because you’ve got to try and stop them.
“On Saturday night, let the floodgates open and let us do out magic. If it pays off and we get a good win, that’s great, but if we don’t, we’ll definitely go down swinging.”
