Has an AFL game ever ended 52-49?
It has. 52-49 has been a AFL final 3 times in 16,622 games. The first was Geelong beat Essendon on May 25, 1912; the latest was Melbourne beat St Kilda on August 29, 2020.
That makes 52-49 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 53-49 has happened 2 times and 52-50 has happened 2 times. At one point the score disappeared for 55 years, between 1912 and 1967.