The 22-year-old will start off the interchange bench for the Newcastle Knights against North Sydney in Cessnock.

Wiscombe left Albury in February last year to link with long-time powerhouse Western Suburbs in the powerful Newcastle competition, which is rated the best outside the NRL and two state leagues in NSW and Queensland.

"That was the hardest footy I've played, just the quality, no matter what team you play, they always have NSW Cup or NRL players," he suggested.

Wiscombe was coached by Todd Lowrie, who played 203 games with five NRL clubs, snaring a premiership at Melbourne Storm in 2012.

"He started off the bench at the start to find his feet and once he did that, he became one of our best players week in, week out," Lowrie offered.

That form was rewarded with an off-season at the Knights under former Australian and NSW enforcer Mark O'Meley.

"I thought he and another guy were the competition's form back-rowers, so we put him on a train and trial to see how he went," O'Meley explained.

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Wiscombe impressed at the Thunder as a teenager in 2019, but didn't play the following year as the club was forced out through COVID.

He always showed a tremendous ability to bust the line and was a try-scoring machine for a forward, but both Wiscombe and Lowrie admit he had a lot to learn about the nuances of defending at that higher level.

"Defence is a big thing when you get involved in the systems, learning how to defend and win your tackles and learning how to defend with the people around you," Lowrie revealed.

O'Meley was renowned as an effort player, who never took a backward step.

"I like his effort areas and (running) lines, but we had to educate him in a number of ways," he reasoned.

"We had wrestle coaches working with him and put a lot of time into him and he's progressed really well, he deserves his jumper."

Lowrie, too, built a career on effort and is well qualified to speak about progressing to the next level in the NRL.

"I was actually surprised when he came here and found his feet that he hadn't been picked up," he admitted.