Has an AFL game ever ended 97-40?
It has. 97-40 has been a AFL final 3 times in 16,622 games. The first was Sydney beat Essendon on July 31, 1915; the latest was Sydney beat Brisbane Lions on August 26, 2006.
That makes 97-40 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 98-40 has happened never and 97-41 has happened 3 times. At one point the score disappeared for 52 years, between 1954 and 2006.