Has an AFL game ever ended 96-85?
It has. 96-85 has been a AFL final 5 times in 17,053 games. The first was St Kilda beat Richmond on May 1, 1965; the latest was Sydney beat GWS on August 5, 2023.
That makes 96-85 the 633rd most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 97-85 has happened 3 times and 96-86 has happened 6 times. At one point the score disappeared for 29 years, between 1982 and 2011.