Has an AFL game ever ended 78-49?
It has. 78-49 has been a AFL final 4 times in 16,622 games. The first was Essendon beat Fitzroy on July 3, 1926; the latest was Richmond beat Hawthorn on March 28, 2021.
That makes 78-49 the 947th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 79-49 has happened 2 times and 78-50 has happened 2 times. At one point the score disappeared for 51 years, between 1970 and 2021.