Has an AFL game ever ended 40-36?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 40-36 3 times. It first happened on May 15, 1897, when Sydney beat Carlton, and most recently on August 15, 2020, when Carlton beat Fremantle.
That makes 40-36 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 41-36 has happened 1 times and 40-37 has happened never. At one point the score disappeared for 119 years, between 1901 and 2020.