It is of course really tempting to climb on the old high horse and give it a damn good flogging along the lines of “These young’uns don’t know they’re born...they get too much too soon...no respect for  their elders...they should bring back flogging” – etc, etc...
 
OK, there might be an element of truth in some of this, especially in the case of young Mr Herlings who appears to have been upsetting the MX2fraternity big time – and who could well be world champion before he has actually left school. 
 
The lad has been hot-housed to glory in his own little world and may well lack the accumulated worldy wisdom of a similar teenager who has been brought-up in a less rarified atmosphere. Or possibly not.
 
But as for riders falling out, holding personal vendettas, looking for trouble on the track and generally behaving in a less than friendly manner...well, I think we all know that this has pretty much always been the case!
 
All of you out there of a certain age will have your own personal memories of riders ranging from humble club scramblers up to World 
Championship motocross chasers who didn’t, shall we say, quite see eye to eye!
 
I’ll leave you to pause and smile knowingly at your favourite on-track indescretions – subtle or not so subtle – that no doubt failed to make the national press. 
 
And possibly some that did!
 
On-track sneakiness is as old as the hills. In the old days of the flag start (pre start gate) it was known for rivals to snick their rivals’ machines into gear just before the flag dropped – or turn the petrol off with a deft sleight of hand. 
 
Across the pond, arch rivals Rick Johnson and David Bailey were just two such characters, incredible riders at the top of their game who virtually invented the block pass in AMA Supercross in the 1980s as they did their best to take each other out.
 
I know because I’ve watched the videos!
 
Now, I’m certainly not going to defend such actions, nor the sort of silly chicanery that has apparently infected MXGP in recent times, but I do think we’ve to be careful before getting too high and mighty.
 
As to the claim that the FIM have done next to nothing to alleviate the situation, I leave you to come up with your own personal conclusions.
 
I know what mine is.