Has an AFL game ever ended 56-53?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 56-53 5 times. It first happened on August 6, 1938, when St Kilda beat Richmond, and most recently on September 9, 2005, when Sydney beat Geelong.
That makes 56-53 the 589th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 57-53 has happened never and 56-54 has happened 4 times. At one point the score disappeared for 37 years, between 1968 and 2005.