Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy says Perth has made a compelling case to be the site of an NRL expansion team after the roaring success of the season-opening double header.

A bumper crowd of 38,824 was in attendance at the new Optus Stadium on Saturday to see the Warriors give their fans hope they'd turned a corner with a 32-20 defeat of South Sydney and Melbourne kick start their premiership defence with a 36-18 win over Canterbury.

Slipped away: Suliasi Vunivalu offloads under pressure from new Canterbury recruit Kieran Foran. Credit:AAP

Despite concerns about the hardness of the pitch, the $1.5 billion stadium was given glowing reviews by all involved.

The state of the art facilities put Sydney's dated Allianz Stadium and ANZ Stadium to shame and made a strong case for NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian's stadia investment policy.