In the early rounds of the 2017 season, speculation about his commitment to the Suns escalated after the team lost the first two matches. He was criticised by experts such as Matthew Lloyd for his poor performance in the Suns' 102-point loss to , who said Ablett needed to "suck it up" as he was no longer playing in the midfield and was now in forced to play in a position he did not enjoy. Following the 2017 AFL season, Ablett won his fourth Gold Coast Suns Club Champion award, despite playing only 14 games. He polled 14 votes in the 2017 Brownlow Medal count, taking him to outright second all-time career votes behind Gary Dempsey. By polling 3 votes in 3 rounds of the 2017 season, he became the first player to receive the maximum 3 votes in 50 matches.