Has an AFL game ever ended 117-81?
It has. 117-81 has been a AFL final 3 times in 17,053 games. The first was Footscray beat Geelong on April 28, 1945; the latest was Melbourne beat North Melbourne on July 15, 1989.
That makes 117-81 the 1599th most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 118-81 has happened 2 times and 117-82 has happened 5 times. At one point the score disappeared for 40 years, between 1945 and 1985.