Has an AFL game ever ended 53-44?
It has. 53-44 has been a AFL final 4 times in 16,622 games. The first was Sydney beat Fitzroy on May 2, 1908; the latest was Richmond beat Gold Coast on July 13, 2013.
That makes 53-44 the 947th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 54-44 has happened 3 times and 53-45 has happened 3 times. Nearly all of its occurrences fall between 1890 and 1919. At one point the score disappeared for 96 years, between 1917 and 2013.