Tasmanian all-rounder Brett Geeves proved a hero with the bat before bowling the Tigers back into the contest against Queensland on a wicket-packed opening day of their Sheffield Shield clash at the Gabba.

At stumps, the Tigers, largely thanks to Geeves, were back in the hunt having Queensland at 4-75 in reply to their first innings total of 156 - not a bad result considering they were reeling at 5-27 at one stage.

Geeves grafted 40 runs off 98 balls on a slightly greenish wicket after the Tigers' top order crumbled at the hands of boom young paceman Scott Walter (4-30 off 16 overs) and seasoned seamer Chris Swan, who made a successful injury comeback with 3-45.

"It was a pretty strange day, I thought the Bulls bowlers set the tone for both teams," said Geeves who has a lot of responsibility in the absence of Test bowler Ben Hilfenhaus.

Tasmania's tail wagged with Geeves, Brady Jones (18) and Brendan Drew, who contributed a vital 29, which included two sixes, proving stubborn.

Some poor judgment prevented the Bulls from being in a dominant position at stumps with both Ryan Broad (30) and big-hitting Lee Carseldine (3) guilty of bad decisions.

Carseldine picked the wrong line trying to drive Geeves while Broad would have been filthy with himself after doing the hard work and then not offering a shot to a Geeves' ball that didn't cut back all that much but took his off stump.

Walter bowled magnificently early, swinging the ball to claim the wickets of Johnathan Wells (0), Alex Doolan (2) with a pearl of an inswinger and Tigers skipper George Bailey (5).

"Young Walter looked superb," Geeves said of the strongly-built 20-year-old playing just his third Shield game.

Swan was delighted when Tasmania opted to bat on a slightly greenish wicket.

"I think we would have bowled anyway (had we won the toss).

"It's always good to bowl first at the Gabba, especially when you get the conditions we got today.

"There wasn't much breeze but it was overcast and it was definitely swinging.

"Scotty bowled exceptionally well to get them on the back foot and we tried to drive it home from there."

With the pitch likely to harden and even out a little on Tuesday, Queensland fancy their chances of taking at least first-innings points, trailing by 81 runs with six wickets in hand.