ESSENDON will continue to monitor Jake Long through its father-son academy, even though it cannot nominate him as a draftee through the scheme this year.

Long, the son of Bombers champion and 1993 Norm Smith medallist Michael Long, will spend his draft year playing for the Northern Territory Thunder in the TAC Cup and under-18 championships, and with Scotch College in Melbourne's APS system.

But as part of their penalty for the supplements scandal, the Bombers were wiped of all father-son access picks across the 2013/2014 drafts.

It means if they want to draft Long, 18, they will need to do it via the national or rookie drafts and hope rival clubs don't pick the talented, lightly-framed prospect.

Michael Long said Jake, who missed a big chunk of last year with a broken collarbone, was still a part of the club's James Hird Academy for potential father-sons but was concentrating on his education at this stage.

"It's an important year for Jake, he's been really focused on his school. The unfortunate part of being 18 is you're being looked at and you never know what might happen between now and the draft," Long told AFL.com.au this week.

"He's very passionate about his footy and he knows what he wants. He's really focused on his year 12, and it's important to us that, as much as we want him to get his football right, he gets his education right.

"I think things will come from that anyway because the APS is a good competition and Scotch run a good program."

Jake Long played in the football competition in Darwin over summer and tried to fit in as many games as possible before returning to Scotch, where his cousin Cyril Rioli graduated in 2007.

Injuries have kept recruiters from seeing Long play consistently, and his father has no expectations on where Jake's football will take him – be it Essendon or elsewhere.

"I've said to him to just go out and enjoy football with your mates. That's important because players grow up too quickly and don't seem to enjoy their time in under-18 level with their friends," said Long, who played 190 games for the Bombers between 1989-2001, including the 1993 and 2000 premierships.

"We've just got to wait and see what eventuates with Jake. We don't have false pretenses of what's going to happen or can predict it, we've just got to let it unfold."

Essendon drafted Anthony Long, Michael's nephew, in 2009, but he was delisted in 2012 after failing to play a game and battling severe hamstring injuries.

Michael Long this week launched the 10-year anniversary of The Long Walk, a charity inspired by his walk to Canberra in 2004 to put the lives of Indigenous people on the national agenda.