Has an AFL game ever ended 87-72?
It has. 87-72 has been a AFL final 3 times in 16,622 games. The first was Carlton beat Hawthorn on May 17, 1930; the latest was Fremantle beat Geelong on September 7, 2013.
That makes 87-72 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 88-72 has happened 10 times and 87-73 has happened 7 times. At one point the score disappeared for 68 years, between 1930 and 1998.