Has an AFL game ever ended 97-85?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 97-85 3 times. It first happened on May 4, 1968, when Fitzroy beat Footscray, and most recently on August 5, 2023, when Geelong beat Port Adelaide.
That makes 97-85 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 98-85 has happened 8 times and 97-86 has happened 2 times. At one point the score disappeared for 44 years, between 1968 and 2012.