Has an AFL game ever ended 96-72?
It has. 96-72 has been a AFL final 6 times in 16,622 games. The first was Geelong beat Sydney on June 28, 1930; the latest was Brisbane Lions beat Footscray on August 8, 2020.
That makes 96-72 the 342nd most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 97-72 has happened 5 times and 96-73 has happened 2 times. At one point the score disappeared for 40 years, between 1977 and 2017.