Greiner successfully defended Ku-ring-gai in the 1981 state election, managing a modest swing in his favour even as the Liberal-National Country Coalition was cut down to only 28 seats in total. Shortly after the election, he ran for the party leadership, but lost to John Dowd. He was however appointed as Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Housing and Cooperatives. However, in 1983, Greiner ousted Dowd in a leadership challenge. Highlighting allegations of corruption against the Labor Party government of Premier Neville Wran during the 1984 election campaign, Greiner managed to pick up a seven percent swing and cut the Wran government's previously overwhelming majority in half, from 19 seats to eight. In the process, he regained much of what the Coalition had lost in the previous two "Wranslides."