It had been 393 days, 9432 hours or 565,920 minutes.

That's how long 22-year-old Newcastle Knights prop forward Josh King had to wait to taste success for the first time in the top grade after he and his teammates put together an impressive effort to beat the Canberra Raiders 34-20 on Sunday.

King made his debut in Nathan Brown's line-up a week after the Knights secured their only win against the Wests Tigers in 2016.

The Singleton junior was then forced to start the 2017 season in the Intrust Super Premiership before recieving a late call-up to face Canberra during the week after missing Newcastle's Round 2 victory over the Titans back in March.

After 14 NRL games, the wait was finally over. 

"[This win] has been a long time coming for me," King told NRL.com.

‌"Being a young player in this side and playing first grade at my age is already an honour but getting the win is just an unbelievable feeling.

"You spend all week with the boys training hard so to go out there and put together a tough win like that is really rewarding.

"We don't get to sing [the team song] too often so the boys are all ecstatic and especially to win in Indigenous Round in front of all our home fans."

King made headlines in Newcastle last season after revealing he was spending more time completing his electrician apprenticeship off the paddock than training with the Knights throughout the week.

Some weeks leading into a game he trained with his teammates only once under the blessing of Brown, but would still churn out a whole-hearted effort that kept him in the side for 12 appearances.

"This year I'm at the end of my apprenticeship so I'm waiting to be signed off there which means I've been able to train full-time," he said.

"Which means it's been good for me because I get to be around the boys a bit more and have more time for little things like recovery on the body."

Now with the elusive second win of the season in the Knights' pocket, the 80-minute performance is set to boost the morale within the camp and add an extra sense of belief the side can compete with high quality opposition heading into the State of Origin period.

Newcastle's decision to kick into touch and take the momentum away from the Raiders' dangerous back three of Jordan Rapana, Jack Wighton and Nick Cotric proved a masterstroke with the trio contained well with limited opportunities.

"Some weeks we have trouble sticking to our game plans but we managed to really execute it this week and it worked for us today," King said.

"We've been good in patches but our big thing is playing for the full 80 minutes, but today we showed that we can be that team that can match it.

"We like to think we can go out there and play like that every week and if we do then we'll be a more competitive side, not just against Canberra. 

"But it is definitely going to give us a boost of confidence considering we did beat a great side."