Has an AFL game ever ended 80-71?
It has. 80-71 has been a AFL final 3 times in 16,622 games. The first was Melbourne beat Geelong on June 5, 1954; the latest was Sydney beat Richmond on June 17, 2017.
That makes 80-71 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 81-71 has happened 8 times and 80-72 has happened 4 times. At one point the score disappeared for 58 years, between 1959 and 2017.