Has an AFL game ever ended 73-53?
It has. 73-53 has been a AFL final 3 times in 16,622 games. The first was Fitzroy beat Melbourne on May 12, 1906; the latest was Fitzroy beat Footscray on July 11, 1959.
That makes 73-53 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 74-53 has happened 3 times and 73-54 has happened 7 times. At one point the score disappeared for 44 years, between 1906 and 1950.