Has an AFL game ever ended 52-40?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 52-40 6 times. It first happened on May 28, 1904, when Sydney beat Geelong, and most recently on July 3, 1965, when Footscray beat North Melbourne.
That makes 52-40 the 342nd most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 53-40 has happened never and 52-41 has happened never. Nearly all of its occurrences fall between 1890 and 1919. At one point the score disappeared for 50 years, between 1915 and 1965.