Has an AFL game ever ended 97-89?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 97-89 4 times. It first happened on June 17, 1922, when Essendon beat St Kilda, and most recently on May 2, 1998, when Footscray beat Essendon.
That makes 97-89 the 947th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 98-89 has happened 6 times and 97-90 has happened 4 times. Nearly all of its occurrences fall between 1920 and 1949. At one point the score disappeared for 49 years, between 1949 and 1998.