Has an AFL game ever ended 74-71?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 74-71 5 times. It first happened on September 11, 1926, when Sydney beat Essendon, and most recently on March 21, 2020, when Sydney beat Adelaide.
That makes 74-71 the 589th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 75-71 has happened 5 times and 74-72 has happened 5 times. At one point the score disappeared for 50 years, between 1956 and 2006.