Raiders lock Shaun Fensom says players who make themselves unavailable for the annual NSW City-Country representative fixture "need to get their priorities right", adding he'd "do anything" to play in next Sunday's match in Wagga Wagga.
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Fensom has declared himself fit to return from an ankle injury to take on South Sydney in Cairns on Sunday, his last chance to impress Country selectors.
Fensom has been a hard luck story of the past few seasons, overlooked for Country selection and only called in as 18th man last year when there was a huge number of injury withdrawals.
In order to protect the integrity of the contest, the Country Rugby League has tabled a proposal to ban players for one NRL match if they withdraw from the fixture.
Fensom said players and NRL clubs needed to give the match the respect it deserved.
"They just need to get their priorities right," Fensom said. "If they don't want to play for Country then it's their loss.
"Last year I went away as 18th man, but it'd be even better to play in that Country side.
"All the Country players love getting back to the grassroots and promoting the NRL to the wider community."
Fensom has been the foundation of the Raiders' forward pack and is a two-time Mal Meninga medallist as the club's player of the year.
He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee at the end of last year, but returned in time for round one this season.
Ankle ligament damage suffered in his side's 14-10 loss to the Melbourne Storm forced him to miss last weekend's 30-22 victory against the Wests Tigers.
Fensom said he was prepared to play against the Wests Tigers last Sunday, but didn't want to let the team down.
"I was probably 75-80 per cent [fit]," Fensom said. "I probably could have got through the game, but I didn't want to be a passenger and let the side down."
The Raiders are aiming to build on the momentum of their history-making comeback victory against the Tigers. It was the Raiders' third win from four away games this year and they can continue that trend in the humid surrounds of far north Queensland.
The Rabbitohs have lost three of their past four games and are coming off a tough loss to the Sharks on Monday night.
"They'll come out firing no doubt and they'll be desperate for a win," Raiders winger Jordan Rapana said.
"I'm confident if we can play like the last 60 minutes of the weekend we'll have a good shot.
"We really need to get back-to-back wins, it would be really important.
"Consistency is the key, especially individually, that's the case for me."
