Has an AFL game ever ended 78-54?
It has. 78-54 has been a AFL final 4 times in 17,053 games. The first was Fitzroy beat Geelong on June 6, 1904; the latest was Melbourne beat Adelaide on May 6, 2005.
That makes 78-54 the 1005th most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 79-54 has happened 4 times and 78-55 has happened 3 times. At one point the score disappeared for 74 years, between 1931 and 2005.