Has an AFL game ever ended 71-42?
It has. 71-42 has been a AFL final 4 times in 16,622 games. The first was Essendon beat Melbourne on June 21, 1924; the latest was Sydney beat Adelaide on September 8, 2012.
That makes 71-42 the 947th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 72-42 has happened 5 times and 71-43 has happened 2 times. At one point the score disappeared for 46 years, between 1966 and 2012.