Has an AFL game ever ended 81-76?
It has. 81-76 has been a AFL final 7 times in 17,051 games. The first was Sydney beat St Kilda on June 15, 1940; the latest was Carlton beat Adelaide on May 25, 2014.
That makes 81-76 the 222nd most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 82-76 has happened 11 times and 81-77 has happened 6 times. At one point the score disappeared for 38 years, between 1976 and 2014.