Has an AFL game ever ended 97-80?
It has. 97-80 has been a AFL final 4 times in 16,622 games. The first was Essendon beat Fitzroy on September 5, 1931; the latest was Richmond beat Footscray on June 9, 1986.
That makes 97-80 the 947th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 98-80 has happened 7 times and 97-81 has happened 6 times. Nearly all of its occurrences fall between 1920 and 1949. At one point the score disappeared for 41 years, between 1945 and 1986.