Has an AFL game ever ended 56-52?
It has. 56-52 has been a AFL final 3 times in 17,053 games. The first was Fitzroy beat Carlton on June 25, 1904; the latest was St Kilda beat Richmond on August 9, 2025.
That makes 56-52 the 1599th most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 57-52 has happened 3 times and 56-53 has happened 5 times. At one point the score disappeared for 115 years, between 1904 and 2019.