Has an AFL game ever ended 98-81?
It has. 98-81 has been a AFL final 5 times in 17,053 games. The first was Footscray beat Geelong on September 6, 1930; the latest was Fitzroy beat Richmond on June 23, 1984.
That makes 98-81 the 633rd most common final score out of 6,649 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 99-81 has happened 5 times and 98-82 has happened 2 times. At one point the score disappeared for 27 years, between 1956 and 1983.