Has an AFL game ever ended 71-69?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 71-69 3 times. It first happened on August 5, 1950, when Essendon beat Footscray, and most recently on April 17, 2021, when GWS beat Sydney.
That makes 71-69 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 72-69 has happened 4 times and 71-70 has happened 4 times. At one point the score disappeared for 61 years, between 1960 and 2021.