After a coaching career that has taken him to Ireland, Scotland and Japan, the Englishman has been tasked with leading the revolution of the Red Bulls at Newcastle.
The 54-year-old has referenced taking over a team with 25 new players this season as like starting on the back of the grid in a race.
Having finished bottom of the league in each of the last four seasons, that is a tall order.
The new-look side has opened with three defeats out of three in the new Prem season, albeit taking four bonus points. They sit in ninth, two points ahead of bottom side Harlequins.
McFarland knows the challenge in trying to create an identity and build a team, so the work done during the week carries huge significance.
But what exactly is it about Monday that fires up his juices?
“When you play the game at the weekend, until you come in on Monday, you spend the whole time analysing, talking to your fellow coaches and debriefing,” he told BBC Sport.
“You’re creating a Monday where you can use the information you’ve gained from the week to drive improvement.
“Sundays can be hard work when you’ve lost and so can coming in on Monday, but by the time you’ve done your debrief, had your conversations and shared that disappointment, you can focus on getting better and making decisions on where you can get better.
“You’re effectively putting together an action plan that can move forward in the week.
“Even after you’ve won, you’re thinking, ‘we could have done that better’, so by the end of it, I feel a real energy.”
McFarland says the change in his attitude came about in his playing days after a move from Stade Francais, where he had won the French Championship, to Connacht, traditionally the least successful of the Irish provinces.
“I realised pretty quickly that I couldn’t be relying on winning every weekend to be what made me happy as a person,” he said.
“Something else had to drive me. I made it my point that I was going to enjoy myself on a Monday whatever happened at the weekend.”
