Has an AFL game ever ended 97-81?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 97-81 7 times. It first happened on July 23, 1949, when Geelong beat Sydney, and most recently on April 6, 2025, when Fremantle beat Footscray.
That makes 97-81 the 222nd most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 98-81 has happened 5 times and 97-82 has happened 1 times. At one point the score disappeared for 27 years, between 1958 and 1985.