"I want to stay at the Knights as long as I can," he said. "I love it here, I love the playing group, I love all the fans, the club, the town, everything.

"We always joke around in the team ... saying it's our love bubble. We all love each other, like we're a family of brothers."

Hunt, who had previously spent time with Gold Coast Titans, Melbourne and South Sydney, described the Knights as "the closest group I've ever been involved in, definitely".

Almost two months down the track, I'm wondering how the love bubble is holding up.

Love bubbles, presumably, are at their optimum when teams are winning, fans are cheering and the points table reinforces the whole utopian environment.

Alternatively, I would imagine love bubbles become slightly more flimsy when losses mount, a team tumbles down the ladder and suddenly players become aware that perhaps the future is not looking as rosy as they had been lulled into believing.

And as the Knights prepare for a daunting trip at Brookvale on Saturday, their love bubble would appear in grave danger of bursting.

After four successive defeats, Newcastle have tumbled out of the top eight and their quest to clinch a finals berth for the first time since 2013 is starting to resemble a tall order.

Back-rower Mitchell Barnett said this week that his teammates remain a "tight bunch of boys", and I have no doubt this is true.

But surely that is the case at almost every team in the competition, in particular those who have shared memorable experiences, such as winning grand finals together.

In the case of the Knights, has their collective feelgood factor been undermined by a growing sense of uncertainty?

The abrupt exit of Jesse Ramien this week was hardly an ideal scenario.

For reasons best known to himself, his manager and club insiders, Ramien never seemed to settle after linking with Newcastle.

After an eye-catching debut season for Cronulla, hopes were high that his power and pace would provide the Knights with a strike weapon on their right edge.

But his potential surfaced only in occasional glimpses, although it could be argued that lack of ball was a contributing factor.

The situation came to an unfortunate end this week when, after discussions with Knights coach Nathan Brown, Ramien was effectively shown the door, despite having a season to run on his contract.

How this sits with his teammates is anyone's guess. Brown said on Friday "you won't find any of the playing group or staff saying anything negative about Jesse", yet there has been speculation that some felt his effort levels left a lot to be desired.

Possibly some feel it's good riddance. Others might be disappointed that a mate, and good player, has bailed out.

Whatever the case, the unhappy departure of a player who arrived with such a sense of expectation is unlikely to enhance the team's overall mood.

It is a similar story with Danny Levi and Herman Ese'ese, who have both been shopped around since early in the season, despite being contracted for next year.

Meanwhile, Aidan Guerra, another player with a year to run on his deal with Newcastle, has also apparently been weighing up the option of trying to find a club in Super League, given that his top-grade opportunities have been limited this season.

Fellow veteran Jamie Buhrer, who like Levi and Ese'ese was dropped from first grade this week, is understood to have been told he will not be re-signed at the end of this year.

Like Buhrer, Hunt and veteran winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall are free agents, and while it seems both feature in Newcastle's plans for next season, you would assume they would prefer to have put pen to paper long before now.

All of which has perhaps created something of a distraction, just at the wrong time of year.

Only the players themselves will know how much impact this is having behind the scenes. But put it this way, if you weren't sure where you were going to be working (or living) in a few months time, would you be lying awake late at night?

In a competition as fiercely contested as the NRL, a team only has to be a fraction below their best, for whatever reason, and their chances of winning decrease exponentially.

Somehow the Knights have to put this all to one side and find a way to conquer Manly, who have five wins from their past six starts and last week beat competition leaders Melbourne at their own game.

Maybe Newcastle can prevail and use the reinstated confidence and momentum to launch a winning streak, as they did earlier in the season. Or maybe they will suffer a fifth successive defeat, slip to three points behind the top eight, and with five rounds to play, a campaign that promised so much will start disappearing down the S-bend.

Knights fans can only hope that their team's love bubble is still intact, and that it provides them with that little bit of something special they will need at Brookvale to get their season back on track.