Has an AFL game ever ended 96-81?
It has. 96-81 has been a AFL final 5 times in 16,622 games. The first was Hawthorn beat Fitzroy on June 7, 1926; the latest was Fremantle beat Hawthorn on April 11, 2021.
That makes 96-81 the 589th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 97-81 has happened 6 times and 96-82 has happened 12 times. At one point the score disappeared for 34 years, between 1926 and 1960.