Has an AFL game ever ended 97-91?
It has. 97-91 has been a AFL final 5 times in 17,053 games. The first was Richmond beat Carlton on September 21, 1929; the latest was Geelong beat Melbourne on April 10, 1999.
That makes 97-91 the 633rd most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 98-91 has happened 8 times and 97-92 has happened 7 times. At one point the score disappeared for 35 years, between 1962 and 1997.