Has an AFL game ever ended 98-97?
Yes. AFL has seen a final score of 98-97 3 times. It first happened on August 30, 1975, when Collingwood beat Melbourne, and most recently on April 22, 2006, when Footscray beat Geelong.
That makes 98-97 the 1534th most common final score out of 6,607 that have ever occurred in AFL. One point away, 99-97 has happened 7 times and 98-98 has happened 3 times.