Has an AFL game ever ended 43-40?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 43-40 3 times. It first happened on September 10, 1904, when Carlton beat Essendon, and most recently on August 14, 1948, when Hawthorn beat Fitzroy.
That makes 43-40 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 44-40 has happened 1 times and 43-41 has happened 6 times. At one point the score disappeared for 38 years, between 1910 and 1948.