While I agree, I think they could have shown more. Just to give one example, I was always expecting that Nate’s gift to Ted, the photo, would play a role. Nate was disappointed, because Ted did have it on his desk — at work. But he did have it at home. So I was hoping for a sequence where they’d have a heart-to-heart and ended up in Ted’s home. Where Nate would discover that Ted kept his present in a very prominent spot.
Also him deciding to quit his old job with Rupert felt a bit rushed, too. He was a kit man at Richmond when Rupert was in charge. Presumably he would have known what kind of guy he is.
Agreed, I was fully expecting that Nate would succeed Ted. Roy was a very unlikely candidate given that his strengths weren’t, hmmm, dealing with the subtleties of human interactions.
On the other hand, Ted, Coach Beard and Roy really functioned more like a cohesive unit, a team. I reckon the new troica is similar. Coach Beard is a theoretician, Roy a practitioner and Nate the Wunderkind who sees things from a different perspective.